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Gandalf Grey
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The Psychopath's "State of the Union": Disguising America's Deep Humiliation
By Walter C. Uhler
Created Jan 28 2008 - 9:42am
I won't be watching President Bush's "State of the Union" speech tonight.
And I'll studiously avoid reading about it tomorrow. Not because Bush is a
lame duck - thank God for that. But, because he a megalomaniac and a
pathological lair.
You know how it works. Whether it's your friend, relative or acquaintance;
whenever you've reached the conclusion that he/she is an inveterate liar,
you simply stop listening to him/her, because he/she has lost all
credibility and respect.
Actually, Bush never had my respect. Instead, I marveled over how a punk
child of privilege could drink and bluff his way through mediocrity and
failure - whether it be in college, the Texas Air National Guard, private
enterprise (oil, baseball) or as governor of Texas - and still emerge with
the belief that "God wants me to be President."
Once in office, America's psychopathic president began to plot the overthrow
of Saddam Hussein. Why? Because, Saddam was "the guy who tried to kill my
dad." Unfortunately, while obsessing about Saddam the psychopath blew off
intelligence indicating that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorists were
preparing to strike the United States.
Of course, the psychopath then concealed his own personal negligence ("As a
leader, you can never admit a mistake."), behind a puerile vow to "rid the
world of evil" and a barrage of lies about Saddam Hussein. Thus, in the two
years following the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration made some 935
false statements about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and ties to al
Qaeda. Bush made 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction
and 28 about Saddam's ties to al Qaeda.
Unfortunately, behind his lies was a psychopathy feeding off willful
self-delusion. Thus, according to Rev. Pat Robertson, who met with Bush in
Nashville on the eve of the invasion, Bush "was the most self-assured man I
ever met in my life.like a contented Christian with four aces."
Robertson had deep misgivings about the war ("The Lord told me it was going
to be, A, a disaster and B, messy."). Thus, he told Bush: "Mr. President,
you better prepare the American people for casualties." To which the
psychopathic president responded: "Oh, no, we're not going to have any
casualties." [Alan Cooperman, "Bush Predicted No Iraq Casualties, Robertson
Says," Washington Post, Oct. 21, 2004]
Moreover, only a psychopath would pump his fist, as if kicking a game
winning field goal, just moments before announcing that he had given the
order to send America's sons and daughters into harm's way in Iraq. "Feels
good," Bush said.
What the psychopath didn't know, however, was that the other psychopath,
Saddam Hussein, was making his own plans for Bush's invasion. He ordered the
reproduction of "more than three thousand copies of the film, Black Hawk
Down" - the film documenting the chaos in Somalia that caused American
forces to flee from that country. Saddam had the copies distributed "among
senior figures in the military, the Baath, the Mukhabrat, and a new home
guard, the Fedayeen Saddam." The tape was accompanied by some very simple
instructions: "Create chaos." [Geoffrey Perret, Commander in Chief, p. 352]
Shortly after the invasion, Senator Biden questioned Bush's smug optimism
about events in Iraq: "Mr. President, how can you be so sure when you don't
know the facts?" Bush put his hand on Biden's shoulder and responded: "My
instincts. My instincts."
Notwithstanding such instincts, widespread looting ravaged Iraq in April
2003. It was a critical indicator. According to George Packer, the looting
told Iraqis "that they could fight against us and we were not a serious
force." [Packer, The Assassin's Gate p.138]
Yet, within weeks of the looting, America's psychopathic president was
standing on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln telling the country that, as
far as Iraq was concerned, it was "Mission Accomplished." Proud of his
accomplishments, on June 4, 2003, the psychopath even boasted to Palestinian
Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas: "God told me to strike at Al Qaeda and I
struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did."
[Dilip Hiro, Secrets and Lies, p. 1] As the military historian, Geoffrey
Perret, has observed: "This is the language of no other commander in chief
in American history." [.p 375]
In July, the psychopath would feel compelled to challenge the insurgents.
"Bring 'em on," he told them from the safety of his office in Washington DC.
Accepting the challenge, in August the insurgents blew up the Jordanian
Embassy and the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
The blossoming insurgency caused the gloves to come off, which meant that
torture became the order of the day. According to Professor Perret, Dick
Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld "were making sure that torture would become
inevitable and systematic." [p. 371]
Predictably, our psychopathic president denied that the U.S. was engaged in
torture. But, a November 14, 2005 edition of Frontline, showed an army
interrogator, Anthony Lagouranis, who asserted that torture occurred all
over Iraq. "The infantry units are torturing people in their homes. They are
using things like burns. They smash people's feet with the back of an ax
head. They break bones, ribs . serious stuff." [Ibid, p. 372]
By November 2003, America's defeat in Iraq had become so etched in concrete
that Israel's former prime minister, Ehud Barak, gave Cheney the benefit of
his experience as a career soldier: "You cannot win an occupation. All you
can do now is choose the size of your humiliation," [p. 377]
Obviously, choosing the size of his humiliation comes easy to a psychopath.
Bush has pulled it off by trumpeting so-called "turning points" - one after
the other.
The first turning point was the fall of Baghdad, with its staged toppling of
Saddam's statue. The second was the capture of Saddam Hussein in December
2003. The third was the election of January 2005 and the installation of a
new government tasked with writing a new Constitution. The fourth was the
referendum on that constitution in December 2005 and the fifth was the
election of a permanent government in early 2006. [p. 382]
And that's precisely what America's psychopathic president will do this
evening, when he proclaims that turning point number six - the surge - has
finally allowed America and Iraq to turn the corner.
Yet, were you to read Geoffrey Perret's recent book, Commander in Chief: How
Truman, Johnson, and Bush Turned a Presidential Power into a Threat to
America's Future, you'd find that he believes that Bush's invasion of Iraq
constitutes "the greatest strategic blunder by a leader of a Western
democracy in nearly two hundred years." [p. 363]
It strengthened Iran's position in the Middle East while enhancing China's
throughout the world. It has rendered the U.S. incapable of dealing with the
world's environmental problems and has taught developing countries that they
do not need nuclear weapons now to deter the U.S. - just the wide
distribution of assault weapons and explosives, the creation of an embryonic
network of insurgents and a willingness to create chaos.
Finally, "nobody wants to be dependent on an America that talks loudly about
how indispensable it is, yet stages coups, makes threats, overthrows
governments, democratic or not, and kills many of the world's poorest
people, to the amusement of some generals." [pp. 388-89]. Such is the state
of our union.
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Walter C. Uhler
Created Jan 28 2008 - 9:42am
I won't be watching President Bush's "State of the Union" speech tonight.
And I'll studiously avoid reading about it tomorrow. Not because Bush is a
lame duck - thank God for that. But, because he a megalomaniac and a
pathological lair.
You know how it works. Whether it's your friend, relative or acquaintance;
whenever you've reached the conclusion that he/she is an inveterate liar,
you simply stop listening to him/her, because he/she has lost all
credibility and respect.
Actually, Bush never had my respect. Instead, I marveled over how a punk
child of privilege could drink and bluff his way through mediocrity and
failure - whether it be in college, the Texas Air National Guard, private
enterprise (oil, baseball) or as governor of Texas - and still emerge with
the belief that "God wants me to be President."
Once in office, America's psychopathic president began to plot the overthrow
of Saddam Hussein. Why? Because, Saddam was "the guy who tried to kill my
dad." Unfortunately, while obsessing about Saddam the psychopath blew off
intelligence indicating that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorists were
preparing to strike the United States.
Of course, the psychopath then concealed his own personal negligence ("As a
leader, you can never admit a mistake."), behind a puerile vow to "rid the
world of evil" and a barrage of lies about Saddam Hussein. Thus, in the two
years following the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration made some 935
false statements about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and ties to al
Qaeda. Bush made 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction
and 28 about Saddam's ties to al Qaeda.
Unfortunately, behind his lies was a psychopathy feeding off willful
self-delusion. Thus, according to Rev. Pat Robertson, who met with Bush in
Nashville on the eve of the invasion, Bush "was the most self-assured man I
ever met in my life.like a contented Christian with four aces."
Robertson had deep misgivings about the war ("The Lord told me it was going
to be, A, a disaster and B, messy."). Thus, he told Bush: "Mr. President,
you better prepare the American people for casualties." To which the
psychopathic president responded: "Oh, no, we're not going to have any
casualties." [Alan Cooperman, "Bush Predicted No Iraq Casualties, Robertson
Says," Washington Post, Oct. 21, 2004]
Moreover, only a psychopath would pump his fist, as if kicking a game
winning field goal, just moments before announcing that he had given the
order to send America's sons and daughters into harm's way in Iraq. "Feels
good," Bush said.
What the psychopath didn't know, however, was that the other psychopath,
Saddam Hussein, was making his own plans for Bush's invasion. He ordered the
reproduction of "more than three thousand copies of the film, Black Hawk
Down" - the film documenting the chaos in Somalia that caused American
forces to flee from that country. Saddam had the copies distributed "among
senior figures in the military, the Baath, the Mukhabrat, and a new home
guard, the Fedayeen Saddam." The tape was accompanied by some very simple
instructions: "Create chaos." [Geoffrey Perret, Commander in Chief, p. 352]
Shortly after the invasion, Senator Biden questioned Bush's smug optimism
about events in Iraq: "Mr. President, how can you be so sure when you don't
know the facts?" Bush put his hand on Biden's shoulder and responded: "My
instincts. My instincts."
Notwithstanding such instincts, widespread looting ravaged Iraq in April
2003. It was a critical indicator. According to George Packer, the looting
told Iraqis "that they could fight against us and we were not a serious
force." [Packer, The Assassin's Gate p.138]
Yet, within weeks of the looting, America's psychopathic president was
standing on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln telling the country that, as
far as Iraq was concerned, it was "Mission Accomplished." Proud of his
accomplishments, on June 4, 2003, the psychopath even boasted to Palestinian
Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas: "God told me to strike at Al Qaeda and I
struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did."
[Dilip Hiro, Secrets and Lies, p. 1] As the military historian, Geoffrey
Perret, has observed: "This is the language of no other commander in chief
in American history." [.p 375]
In July, the psychopath would feel compelled to challenge the insurgents.
"Bring 'em on," he told them from the safety of his office in Washington DC.
Accepting the challenge, in August the insurgents blew up the Jordanian
Embassy and the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
The blossoming insurgency caused the gloves to come off, which meant that
torture became the order of the day. According to Professor Perret, Dick
Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld "were making sure that torture would become
inevitable and systematic." [p. 371]
Predictably, our psychopathic president denied that the U.S. was engaged in
torture. But, a November 14, 2005 edition of Frontline, showed an army
interrogator, Anthony Lagouranis, who asserted that torture occurred all
over Iraq. "The infantry units are torturing people in their homes. They are
using things like burns. They smash people's feet with the back of an ax
head. They break bones, ribs . serious stuff." [Ibid, p. 372]
By November 2003, America's defeat in Iraq had become so etched in concrete
that Israel's former prime minister, Ehud Barak, gave Cheney the benefit of
his experience as a career soldier: "You cannot win an occupation. All you
can do now is choose the size of your humiliation," [p. 377]
Obviously, choosing the size of his humiliation comes easy to a psychopath.
Bush has pulled it off by trumpeting so-called "turning points" - one after
the other.
The first turning point was the fall of Baghdad, with its staged toppling of
Saddam's statue. The second was the capture of Saddam Hussein in December
2003. The third was the election of January 2005 and the installation of a
new government tasked with writing a new Constitution. The fourth was the
referendum on that constitution in December 2005 and the fifth was the
election of a permanent government in early 2006. [p. 382]
And that's precisely what America's psychopathic president will do this
evening, when he proclaims that turning point number six - the surge - has
finally allowed America and Iraq to turn the corner.
Yet, were you to read Geoffrey Perret's recent book, Commander in Chief: How
Truman, Johnson, and Bush Turned a Presidential Power into a Threat to
America's Future, you'd find that he believes that Bush's invasion of Iraq
constitutes "the greatest strategic blunder by a leader of a Western
democracy in nearly two hundred years." [p. 363]
It strengthened Iran's position in the Middle East while enhancing China's
throughout the world. It has rendered the U.S. incapable of dealing with the
world's environmental problems and has taught developing countries that they
do not need nuclear weapons now to deter the U.S. - just the wide
distribution of assault weapons and explosives, the creation of an embryonic
network of insurgents and a willingness to create chaos.
Finally, "nobody wants to be dependent on an America that talks loudly about
how indispensable it is, yet stages coups, makes threats, overthrows
governments, democratic or not, and kills many of the world's poorest
people, to the amusement of some generals." [pp. 388-89]. Such is the state
of our union.
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson