They are dead. And George Bush killed them

Harry Browne, the Libertarian presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000 talks about the Iraq war and our psychopathic President in Why I Am Obsessed With War.

George Bush was reinaugurated in Washington last week. Fittingly, the inauguration parade route was lined the entire way with armed guards - so many armed guards that they had to stand shoulder-to-shoulder. As with the rest of America, Washington, D.C. was in a state of siege.

The militant air of the entire affair was very much like a parade in the old Soviet Union or even in Nazi Germany.

And he used the word "freedom" but was really talking about world domination.

And in his speech, George Bush proclaimed his desire for world domination - to have the power and the right to decide who is good and who is bad, who shall live and who shall die, what form of government will exist in each nation.

He made it clear that if he has a use for your government, you will keep it - no matter how oppressive.

But if your government doesn't suit him, if it declares its independence from the United States, we will "liberate" your country and impose what we call "democracy" on it - no matter how advanced your civilization, no matter how much or how little your people may approve of your current form of government.

Like the word "freedom", the word "sacrifice" becomes meaningless when it comes from the mouth of George W. Bush.

A January 21st editorial in The Wall Street Journal summed up George Bush's inauguration speech very neatly:

The entire speech was about Iraq, as a way of explaining to Americans why the sacrifice our troops are making there is justified.

Aye, and there's the rub.

Troops don't sacrifice. Only individuals can sacrifice. For some of them, the sacrifice is a year out of their lives. For others, the sacrifice is in living for a year or more in constant fear and danger.

But for too many, the sacrifice is one's life. The loss of one's whole life.

[.......]

George Bush can speak cavalierly about such sacrifices. He can say "freedom is always worth it." He can speak with gratitude about such sacrifices - because he is making no sacrifice whatsoever.

[.......]

He can’t return to a mother her dead son. He can't return to a wife her dead husband. He can't bring a dead soldier back to raise his children. He can't do anything to restore what he has stolen from people with his glib assurances about WMDs, mobile bioweapons labs, unmanned planes dropping chemical weapons on the East Coast of the United States, about freedom always being worth the price - a price that to him is effectively zero.

The dead are dead, and they can't come back. They won't dance at any inaugural balls - or even attend their alumni reunions. They won’t attend presidential banquets - or even eat at the local coffee shop. Not ever again.

They are dead. And George Bush killed them. He killed them as certainly as though he personally had fired a rocket launcher at their homes.

So who and what is George W. Bush?

If he didn't know that his plan to "liberate" people who hadn't asked to be liberated, to bring democracy to people who hadn't asked for democracy, would lead to the deaths of thousands of people, he is not only incompetent and unfit to hold office, he is surely psychopathic and needs to be incarcerated.

Only a psychopath would stand in the midst of thousands of security guards and speak of "the force of human freedom."

Only a man so insulated from the real world by palace sycophants, by little Napoleons filled with utopian fantasies, and by callous, ambitious schemers to whom the lives of others mean nothing - only a man so insulated could possibly speak of "the expansion of freedom in all the world."

Only a man with no link to reality could start a war that destroys lives and families and then say, "Every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth."

Only a snake oil salesman can rain missiles and bombs on other countries and then say that no "human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies."

Only a man divorced from human reason can imprison people - possibly for life - without due process of law and then say that "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."

Only a liar can proclaim that he will decide which countries must be remade and then say, "No one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave."

Only a devious schemer can announce a goal of "ending tyranny in our world" while he is imposing a new tyranny in his own country - our country.

So you tell me: what kind of a President do we have?

This is a more eloquent condemnation than I have heard from anyone on the left. We need to listen to these "true conservatives" and learn. We may find that progressives and conservatives share many core values one of which is George W. Bush is evil.

Note
I have a post on a commentary by conservative Lew Rockwell on the Republican pundits who shill for the Bush administration over at Middle Earth Journal, Interesting thoughts from a "true" conservative.