Oct 30 2002
Iraq Back in the Spotlight
Anyone else notice that between campaign fundraisers for GOP congressmen, Prez. Bush has been cranking up the War With Iraq propaganda again?
Every week, it’s getting easier and easier to spot trends in how the Prez. tries to get his message out. You might recall that the Prez. had almost nothing to say about Iraq the first 2-3 weeks of October. Why? Unsuprisingly, that’s just about the time the Washington DC sniper was running amok on the major media airways and major East coast by-ways. The Prez. knew people didn’t want to hear about supposed middle-eastern bad-guys-who-tried-to-kill-my-daddy and might - someday! - launch attacks on U.S. citizens when U.S. citizens were getting attacked in their own backyards, shopping centers, and schools.
So the rhetoric from the Prez. against Saddam had to be toned down a bit.
Now that they’ve got the alleged guys who were responsible for the DC shootings, here comes the Prez. swooping back in, his sabre rattling, trying to re-attract the attention of the American people by shining the spotlight back on Iraq, and all the nasty things they might someday do to us, with the nuclear weapons we think they have, but aren’t sure about yet, but just trust us, because they’re linked with Al-Queda and we have proof! We just won’t show you. Yet!
All the while, consumer confidence is plummeting, the stock market is erasing any positive gains it made in the last two months, and jobless claims are rising. There’s also an election in six days which will swing the pendulum of political power further to the right or back to the left, where it will likely stay for the next two years.
The Prez. & Co. want us to believe that if we vote for his pals next week - which would grant him easy passage on most bills he and the companies that financed his presidency want passed (including draconian anti-abortion laws) - things will get better here at home. That if we kick the shit out of a country like Iraq, it will make things better for the world, and here at home. The Prez. fancies himself as a regular, down home, in touch with the people kinda guy. If that were true, he’d recall this old-fashioned saying, and reconsider whats best for America:
Clean up your own backyard before you try to clean up someone else’s.
