[Newspoetry] N. Bigelow newspoem

[Robert Porter]

U.S.  PRESIDENT PREPARES AMERICANS FOR WAR

by Newton Bigelow (Associated Poets)

Dateline Madrid--

In the wake of the tragic events of September 11, U.S. President George Bush
has unleashed a flurry of bizarre rhetoric apparently designed to elicit the
unquestioning support of the American people for whatever response he
decides on, no matter how hamhanded or ill-advised it may be.  The following
is a series of actual statements the President has made over the last week.


"We will smoke them out of their holes.''

"We're at war.''

"I will not settle for a token act. "

"This is a conflict without battlefields or beachheads, a conflict with
opponents who believe they are invisible."

" I believe ‹ I know that an act of war was declared against America. But
this will be a different type of war than we're used to. This is ‹ in the
past there have been, you know, beaches to storm and islands to conquer. . .
. "

"But they know what I know: that when we start putting the heat on those who
house them, they will get them running. And once we get them running, we
have got a good chance to getting them, and that's exactly what our intent
is. "

" I want him ‹ I want justice. And there's an old poster out West, as I
recall, that said "Wanted: Dead or Alive "

" I just remember ‹ all I'm doing is remembering when I was a kid, I
remember that ‹ they used to put out there in the old West a wanted poster.
It said "Wanted Dead or Alive." All I want, and America wants him brought to
justice. That's what we want. "


According to sources close to the President, this style of speech is, "for
better or worse", quite representative of the way Bush talks in private
conversation.  If we are in fact going to wage a "war on terrorism", do
these sound like the words of a man who is preparing to mete out "patient
justice"?

Will this man's actions be a memorial or a mockery of those who died?

http://wire.ap.org/?FRONTID=HOME&SITE=ILBLO&enter=Go
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/18/national/18BTEX.html