George W. Bush, the rancher from Crawford, Texas, has finally done it. He
has Daddy Bush mad at him. In a recent speech at Tufts University, the
elder Bush warned his son against a unilateral war against Iraq. Bush 41
must also have been on the receiving end of some heated phone calls from
world leaders tired of the pomposity and bellicosity of the Junior Bush.
Bush Pere called for the United States to mend fences with allies such as
France and Germany. Junior Bush's messianic call to arms has upset the
world economy, rendered 40 year military and economic alliances practically
meaningless, soured world public opinion against the United States,
triggered political crises in the Britain and Spain, and caused serious
rifts within the U.S. and British military and intelligence structures. The
intelligence revolt is so serious, a Top Secret National Security Agency
tasking memo was featured in Britain's The Observer newspaper thanks to
high-level authorized leaks.
Although Daddy Bush was not the best presidential actor available from
central casting, he did bring to the table a long history of involvement
with both diplomacy and intelligence. He was a U.S. ambassador to both the
UN and China and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Both the
UN and the CIA are steaming mad at Junior Bush. Trying to stampede the UN
into submission after bragging that there were more "Get the US out of the
UN and the UN out of the US" signs in Midland than there were "God Bless
America" signs has ruined his cause on the banks of the East River.
Similarly, at Langley, Virginia, seasoned intelligence agents are under
pressure to cook the books and come up with smoking guns in Iraq that just
do not exist.
Nevertheless, the war hawks in the Pentagon, the National Security Council,
State Department, and American Enterprise Institute continue to call for
total war. They talk openly of going after Iran, North Korea, Syria,
Lebanon, Libya, and Cuba after Iraq is conquered. Hearkening back to the
Joe McCarthy days, they brand their opponents as terrorists, as did the
repulsive and repugnant ursine creature Richard Perle to New Yorker
journalist Sy Hersh on CNN.
The world has had enough of Junior Bush and his gang of xenophobes,
racists, anti-Arabs, anti-Muslims, fundamentalist Bible-thumpers, crooked
defense contractors and oil moguls, Moonies, right-wing ideologues, and
quislings like Tony Blair. Junior Bush's "coalition of the willing" is more
like a "coalition of the chilling."
But Daddy Bush's comments interestingly echo those of Brent Scowcroft,
Norman Schwarzkopf, Anthony Zinni, and other former luminaries in past GOP
administrations. Junior Bush's so-called press conference last week, in
which he snottily decided to ignore the doyenne of the White House Press
Corps, Helen Thomas, demonstrated that the Resident-in-Chief is under some
sort of medication. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd suggested it was
Xanax, others, aware of reports that Junior suffers from Attention Deficit
Disorder, opined that he was on Ritalin. Some recovering alcoholics believe
Junior fits the bill of a "dry drunk."
Whatever the case, the world is now coming to the conclusion that the real
threat t world peace is not in Baghdad, Pyongyang, Teheran, Ramallah, or
Tripoli, but right in Washington, DC. No nation or dictator can be expected
top remain calm when the President of the United States lumps them into an
"Axis of Evil" and calls the North Korean leader a "pygmy." Even that term
is pejorative, the Twa people of Africa, once known as "pygmies," reject
that term as racist. And speaking of that, this reporter was just a little
concerned when it was discovered that "intelligence" documents previously
cited by the Bush administration were frauds. The case involved Iraq's
supposedly obtaining uranium from the West African nation of Niger. Now
considering Junior's previous problems with pronouncing foreign names, I
can understand why Ari Fleischer banned that question from last week's news
conference.
Considering the fact that Daddy Bush is still on good terms with many
European and other leaders, it is apparent that he must be verbally
spanking his ill-tempered boy. It must be kind of sad for the elder Bush to
see his son going down in history as a very negative footnote. After all,
John Quincy Adams had a fairly successful administration. So what's wrong
with Junior?
It could be that he is mentally incapable of carrying out his duties. In
such case, the 25th Amendment is very clear on a course of action. But
Junior's problems actually lie with his closest aids, those who manipulate
him to carry out their sordid agendas. And for this, the regime in
Washington has started a fire that is spreading rapidly through the
corridors of power in Washington, state capitals, foreign capitals,
intelligence headquarters, corporate board rooms, royal palaces, and even
into the sanctified halls of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
The protests and resignations that started out with a trickle are
developing into a deluge. Only the U.S. corporate controlled media, which
is anchored on such Jingos as Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Wolf Blitzer,
Evan Thomas, Charles Krauthammer, Sean Hannity, William Kristol, Fred
Barnes, Don Imus, Michael Savage and their pathetic and much too numerous
clones, is missing the point.
Here is how this reaction against Junior Bush began. On February 27, John
Brady Kiesling, a 20-year career Foreign Service Officer and the Political
Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Greece, tendered his resignation in protest
over Bush's war plans. In his letter of resignation he stated, "we have
begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international
relationships the world has ever known." Brady was joined by career
diplomat John H. Brown on March 10. In his letter of resignation, Brown,
who represented the United States throughout Eastern Europe , stated,
""Throughout the globe the United States is becoming associated with the
unjustified use of force. The president's disregard for views in other
nations, borne out by his neglect of public diplomacy, is giving birth to
an anti-American century." Bravo Mr. Brown! Brown and Kiesling represent
the best of the State Department. Powell and his pro-Likud Party ciphers,
John Bolton and David Wurmser, represent the worst.
Last week, a group of disgruntled British intelligence officials leaked a
Top Secret/COMINT National Security Agency memorandum calling on Britain's
intelligence services to help America listen in on the private
communications of UN Security Council members and other UN members not on
the council. It was the most dramatic release of classified information due
to an internal policy dispute since the Pentagon Papers were released by
Daniel Ellsberg in 1971. Although one 28-year old employee of Britain's
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was arrested, police were
looking to arrest others. It would seem that the dissention within the
British government reached far higher than the spy agency nestled in the
Cotswolds.
International Development Secretary Clare Short threatened to resign over
Britain's support for Bush. She called Blair's policy "reckless." There
were rumors that former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was going to quit
Blair's Cabinet. A Labor Party Member of Parliament quit as permanent
private secretary for Blair's Environment Minister. Former Labor Defense
Minister Peter Kilfoyle joined in the attack on Blair. The longest-serving
MP, Tony Dalyell, a Laborite, called on Blair to resign. (Something can be
said for longest-serving parliamentarians, our own venerable and
longest-serving Senator Robert Byrd has accused Junior Bush of acting like
a Roman Emperor). The British revolt even spread to the Conservative Party
where John Randall quit as his party's whip over British support for Bush's
Iraq adventure. A wave of other resignations are expected. Labor Party
activists are vowing to "de-select" Members of Parliament who voted for
Blair's war. The effort may ultimately sink the war hawk administration of
Blair, his Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and Blair brain trust Peter Mandelson.
But it is not just Blair who faces an internal revolt. After Kiesling's
resignation from the State Department came a blast from within the ranks of
the GOP. Jack Walters, the GOP Chairman in Boone County, Missouri, resigned
over Bush's war plans. Walters' letter made some cogent points and posed
some agonizing questions: "The consequences of our planned attack on Iraq
(and also probably Iran, given the size of our forces and their location in
proximity to Iran), should cause us all to pause. The Pentagon has
announced that we will hit Baghdad with a force almost equal to the bombing
of Hiroshima. Obviously many thousands of civilians will perish, with
untold thousands maimed. And for what? To liberate them? To bring them
freedom? Or democracy? Or is it to really secure the world's second largest
oil reserve and establish a base from which to subjugate other Middle
Eastern nations? Is it also the plan for Israel to use the cover of war to
forcibly relocate the Palestinian population (as has been publicly stated
by some members of Israel's current government)?"
The worst news for Bush is that Walters is a pro-life Republican from an
important swing state. He is not the type of anti-war individual portrayed
by Bush's lockstep supporters. Walters states "I only sought the position
of Chairman originally in the hope that I could recruit God-fearing,
thinking, pro-life believers in our Constitution to stand for office." Not
the rantings of a liberal by any stretch.
Grass roots movements have succeeded in passing anti-war resolutions in
over 120 state legislatures and city councils around America. College
student governments are joining in. From Syracuse, New York to Dayton,
Ohio, to Baltimore to Olympia, Washington, grass roots organizations have
worked with local politicians to enact the resolutions. Junior, or at least
his Svengali, Karl Rove, must realize that politics is local as are
presidential election polling places.
So Junior Bush has a dilemma. Daddy's irritated at him. France and Russia
are preparing to veto his resolution. His pals Tony Blair and Spain's Jose
Maria Aznar are facing domestic political revolts. Junior snubs Sinn Fein
leader Gerry Adams, accusing him of complicity with terrorists in Colombia,
this after his immigration storm troopers roughly detained former MP
Bernadette Devlin and deported her back to Ireland after accusing her of
being a terrorist. Count the Ireland peace initiative in big trouble. Ditto
the Palestinian-Israeli accords. Bush is linked by the navel to Ariel
Sharon. Yassir Arafat is also on the terrorist list once again. Nelson
Mandela, after saying Bush "cannot think properly," is on Junior's baddie
list. And the Pope, well Bush got "frank" with his special envoy, which
probably means he threw some sort of delusional fit.
America's closest neighbors, Canada and Mexico, feel the U.S. is a hostile
nation. For the first time in history, the United States is the source of
refugees--immigrants seeking refuge and safety from the Homeland Security
storm troopers of the Bush regime.
Junior, let's face it, you have done more damage to the world and your
country in two years than most tyrants have accomplished in decades. Your
Dad now even believes you are way off base. Your predecessors Jimmy Carter
and Bill Clinton think you are an embarrassment. Your Dad's best friends
and colleagues think your Iraq adventure is ill-timed and ill-conceived.
You need to either dump that aforementioned band of lunatics you stuck into
your administration and who are steering you into political oblivion or you
should let Laura and Daddy sign the papers and let the 25th Amendment take
its course.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and
columnist. He wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth.
Madsen can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen03112003.html
