Bush
Reloaded
By Satya Sagar
02 September, 2004
Znet
Weep,
buddy, weep. Im gonna vote Bush and I hope he comes and bombs
your ass
It is not very often
that I get unsigned love letters like this or prognostications about
the fate of my posterior. But there it was staring me in my face- this
short missive provoked possibly by some unkind public analysis I may
have made about Imperial America and the goons who currently run the
place.
I am not surprised
at all. Truths told bluntly hurt and those who cannot handle it with
their brain often threaten to resort to their brawn. Like Bush, like
Bush-Lover.
Nor am I worried
that some day Bush Jr. is really going to come bomb my ass.
There are many things I need to do to shape up my behind (some sit ups
and an aerobic workout should do) but I know it is still small enough
to avoid any seat-seeking missile that the Pentagon may
have conjured up.
What does however
interest me immensely is the idea that I will weep if my buddy
who wrote that angry mail votes for Dubya. I cannot understand why would
it hurt me in any special way if a majority of the American public brings
back Bush to one more term at the White House? I mean, in the complete
absence of any change in the way power is really controlled or wielded
in the US, what difference does it make to me, as a citizen of the Third
World, which stooge of the American establishment wins or loses?
In fact given George
Bush Jrs brilliant record in doing permanent damage to the very
political, economic and cultural foundations on which the US Super-turned
Hyper-turned Imperial Power rests I would happily paraphrase 43
and say bring him on once again. Far from weeping I would
actually rejoice if Bush remains as President and finishes his historical
mission of dismantling, brick by brick, base by base, every outpost
of the global US Empire.
Sure, I agree in
the short run a new Bush Presidency could see more wars and misery than
what we already have. He might go on to attack Iran next and then Syria
and then North Korea. In another four years time he will come back to
invade Afghanistan and Iraq once more because by then they would have
surely slipped out of US control. So there we would go beating around
the Bush all over again.
But despite these
dire possibilities of Bush Reloaded we also need to consider the fact
that US Democrats have an equally bad record of sending US troops abroad
and so there is no real guarantee that America will not be at war in
future under some noble pretext or the other. After all
the Democrats were the ones who were responsible for the Korean and
Vietnam Wars, not to mention the bombing of Serbia- all in the service
of the same military-financial-corporate complex that Bush Jr. serves.
Already we know for example that Bushs main opponent at the polls,
John Kerry, objects not to the invasion of Iraq but only to the way
it was sold to the world.
So on balance, as
far as many in the Third World are concerned, I think there is nothing
much to really choose between the main contestants of the next US election.
They are all going to bomb us anyway and to mangle the English language
a bit A Known Devil in the Bush is surely worth two Unknown in
the Curry, er, I mean Kerry.
I would recommend
strongly that for a while let us stop our Bush-bashing and calmly consider
what his major contributions to the world have been since he took over
as US President, four fateful years ago. The list is too long of course
for a short article but one just has to recount (not Florida) the way
Bush inspired the entire world to rally against him, how he lost Aznar
the Spanish elections and will soon do the same to Blair and Howard-
and you know what I mean. Not mentioning of course the sheer entertainment
value to countless people of Bushisms- those gems of priceless
wisdom that roll off Bush Jrs tongue every time he speaks.
But here are three
truly historical achievements of the current Bush Jr. regime
that deserve his re-election in the upcoming US polls:
For outing
the reality of the US as an Imperial Power: There was once upon a time
(just four years ago) that much of the world actually believed in the
idea of a unipolar world with America- the benevolent Superpower
at the apex of it all. This was the End of History view
that said now that neo-liberal capitalism had triumphed over socialism-
the people of the world should shut up and put up with the hard reality
of America policing the world.
Sure, some of them
had heard of what the US policeman was up to for a hundred
years or more in Latin America, the Philippines and other nations occupied
and plundered by US corporations. They had of course know also about
the Vietnam War blah, blah, blah but then the US is not like the
old colonial powers of Europe was the standard refrain everywhere.
It was more like a friendly monster, which was all good intentions but
screwed up once in a while- shit happens etc.
Not anymore. Now
you travel from Europe to Latin America or Africa to Asia it is impossible
to convince people that the US is not going the way of a classical colonial
power- invading sovereign countries under various pretexts, grabbing
control of their resources, installing puppet regimes, shooting down
local resistance as terrorists- its all 18th century once
more. The common view now is that the US used to be a mere Superpower,
the collapse of the Soviet Union made it a Hyper Power and Bush Jr.
and his coterie have foolishly made it into yet another Imperial Power-
with all the tragic consequences for both victims and perpetrators.
Today everybody
easily sees through the smokescreens and propaganda to realize the simple
fact that US Imperialism, at its core, is not very different from the
Raj and its racist rule. I didnt say that- thats what the
ideologues of the War on Terror are openly calling for every day ever
since 9/11.
Thanks Dubya, that
saves many of us much time, energy, resources spent on the political
education of our planets once confused population. Their view
of America will never again be as naïve and wide-eyed as it was
just yesterday- when all their troubles seemed so far away.
For undermining
the ability of the US to hold on to Imperial Power: As Zbigniew Brzezinski
once famously noted the three things that make up a real Superpower
are military, economic and cultural hegemony over the globe. Not long
ago (around four years ago) the US was the undisputed champion on all
three fronts- if you were not being shocked into silence by a US missile,
you were being awed by the lure of the US dollar or seduced into submission
by the sheer creative skills of some American performer or the other.
Not anymore. Despite
the frequency with which Bush Jr. has been shooting away during his
current term he is failing to shock the resistance to US
imperial adventures anywhere. Instead what we see in Iraq- in Najaf,
Fallujah, Nasiriyah- is a people who are fighting US Occupation with
everything they have and it is the US armed forces that are on retreat.
Surely not a great display of unbeatable US military prowess?
Again, on the global economic front time was (about four years ago)
when, despite some dissent here and there, the US dominated discussions
on world trade rules, determined foreign currency values and was the
undisputed model on which many countries based their national economic
policies.
Now global resistance
to the unilateralist approach of the Bush administration on trade issues
is preventing the US from shaping the rules of the game anymore. In
the meanwhile record US fiscal deficits and reckless increases in foreign
loans are undermining the US dollar so seriously that the entire current
global financial architecture-skewed to US benefit- may actually collapse
soon. The ability of US financial voodoo doctors to print
lots of color paper and get the world to accept them is diminishing
by the hour and with that the days of the Great American Free
Lunch too are coming to an end. Honestly, from now on, it is going
to be Bye, Bye Mr. Free American Pie!
Turning to the status
of US hegemony over global culture, I think the critical part of culture
that we need to look at is really global information flows and the way
the US has skillfully controlled them in the past. There was a time
(four years ago) when whether it was the US media or Hollywood, people
around the globe lapped it all up eagerly with their subconscious screaming
Gimme More!
But that was in
the past. Now the US media- whether television or print is the laughing
stock of the world- what with its editors and embedded reporters losing
credibility everywhere over their willful misreporting of alleged WMDs
in Iraq, their refusal to foresee the Iraq quagmire and their dishonest
apologies on being exposed for what they are- mere charlatans. In the
process the US establishment too has lost its crucial ability to convince
the world that its imperialism abroad serves the best interests
of all humanity- a very serious loss indeed that in turn hurts
its military and economic capabilities too.
Nobody but Bush Jr. could have done this to the most powerful country
on Earth ie., bring it back to Planet Earth. Dubya, we truly love Ya
!!
For preparing the
conditions for the US to get back to being a Normal Power: Even as Bush
Jr. and friends openly ride the fantasy horses of cowboy colonialism
their sheer ineptness is fast turning the journey into a complete nightmare
for the US elites. And therein lies Bush Jrs potential contribution
to the rest of the world another four years in the White House
and he will screw it up so badly for his Masters that they will not
recover for at least a couple of generations.
For in his hot pursuit
of failed states to vanquish, Bush is spurring America on
to becoming yet another failed Superpower- just like its
Cold War rival the Soviet Union. The unprecedented dominance of global
affairs that the US has managed since the collapse of the Soviet Union
was destined to end at some point anyway (if it has more muscles than
it can Flex, it will always go like T.Rex) and the world has to thank
Bush Jr. for accelerating the process.
Iraq today is to
the US, in sheer military terms, what Afghanistan became for the USSR
in the eighties. The expense, the loss of lives, the sheer resistance
from the occupied, the loss of global allies are all taking their toll
steadily and it is just a matter of time before the Joker-in-Chief brings
the house of cards tumbling down.
I honestly dont think that the US is not about to disintegrate
like the USSR or anything as dramatic as that. But it is right now on
course to go from being the worlds only Superpower to something
like say Britain or France- pining away for past glory-a simpering-
whimpering- former-Superpower.
There is of course
a good chance also that the US could return to being just another normal
Power- not feared but respected, not hated but liked, wealthy without
being greedy, strong but not a bully- like say umm
.Canada. But
that would depend entirely on what the American people do or do not
do to change the way their country is really run. And thanks to Bush
Jr. the people are now raring for some serious change.
Consider this. Just
as in the case of the Soviet Union, whose misadventures in Afghanistan
turned its own population against the ruling regime, large sections
of the American people too are today deeply upset with the US Occupation
of Iraq. And not just Iraq but also about the growing unemployment,
homelessness, inequality, the loss of democracy, the influence of fundamentalism
on gender and education policies- the list of grievances runs long and
deep.
In fact I believe they are ready for nothing short of a full-fledged
revolt that will sweep away not just Bush Jr. but a whole lot of lobbies
and vested interests that have hijacked US democracy and plan to crash
them through every great value their nation represents. A hijacking
that is nothing less than the Mother of all 911s.
And that is precisely
why it does not matter if Bush Jr. does get elected as the US President
again. It would be too easy, too cheap to get rid of him merely through
the ballot- like letting Pol Pot go with a parking ticket.
What the rest of
the world wants to see are walls and statues tumbling, people planting
flowers on tanks, the hated leader chased by grannies with
placards, crowds flashing V signs - in other words the Full Monty of
a Peoples Power Revolution. Anything less would be cheating Bush
Jr. and All the Presidents Men of their just rewards
for everything they have done for their country and the world.
Seriously buddy,
vote Bush and bring him on!
Satya Sagar is a
writer, videomaker and journalist based in Thailand. He can be contacted
at [email protected]