[Peace-discuss] FW: Revolution

[Lisa Chason]

 A frind of mine in Europe who forwarded me this writes: This pretty much
sums up the view most people I know have of America at the moment.
 
Revolution

By John S. Hatch

11/26/05 -- President Bush was recently criticized for not being forceful
enough in denouncing Chinese human rights abuses during a trip there. Excuse
me? This is the torture president. How on earth can the United States preach
to anyone in the world about human rights or the rule of law, or morality?
In even raising the question, has Mr. Bush abandoned any claim to sanity? If
it is wrong for China to abuse human rights (and it's true that their record
is horrible) how is it acceptable for the US in Iraq to sexually torture
imprisoned children as a means to coerce their (probably completely
innocent) parents to disclose information they most likely don't have? 

There is within the mythology America finds so indispensable something so
sick and downright evil, but so pervasive that even after all the
revelations of torture and rape and murder sanctioned at the highest levels
of government, even now the numbness persists, and writers still insist on
thinking that America is somehow a shining example of decency to a world
which needs its sanctimonious preaching. Who in their right mind would want
to emulate America in this century? Who on earth would want to be an
American in this darkest of times? America is like a born-again Christian
fundamentalist-mean, ignorant, full of hate and rage and superstition, but
utterly convinced of his own righteousness. In short, insane. Dangerously
insane.

In Iraq American sanctioned and trained elements of the Iraqi military are
back to using electric drills on 'insurgents', an old Saddam phenomenon.
Drill for oil, drill for blood. They'll drill your knee, or your arm, or
your head. You are innocent. Doesn't matter. Think George cares? White
phosphorous. Depleted uranium. Shock and awe. Cluster bombs. Etcetera. Where
are those photographs and videos of children undergoing torture at Abu
Grahaib that a judge ordered released months ago? Whatever happened to the
rule of law? Where did accountability go? Where the hell is the outrage? Why
are Bush and Rumsfeld and Rice and a bunch of others not in jail cells?
Where is the outrage? 

For those who think that change is coming in '06 or '08, think again-these
people cannot relinquish power, whatever further lies and outrages they must
commit to retain it. There are simply too many crimes against humanity and
war crimes for which to avoid accountability at all costs. Lives depend on
it. Many more crimes are yet to be reported. Do not for a moment consider
that this bunch would not, if they saw it in their interests, engineer
another deadly 911 incident (blamed on Muslims, of course) to once again
terrorize the populace into meek submission. It may be pathologically
manipulative and barbaric, but that's Straussian politics. To them it's not
only acceptable, it's business as usual. It's probably going to happen, as
Bush's numbers continue to decline.

America has seen bad times-slavery, the civil war, McCarthyism and communist
hysteria, never-ending racism, Nixon and Kissinger, the unheralded horror of
Reagan, but Bush has brought disaster on a completely different level. Bush
is a dupe, if an evil one, but there are truly ugly, nasty people pulling
his strings. Nothing short of a second American revolution is going to
rescue your nation. Even now Bush is making plans to violently stop such a
thing from happening. We're going to see once and for all if Americans stand
for the vaunted values to which they give such eloquent and loud lip
service. If so, then I fear they will have to pay in blood. It's come to
that. I'm sorry.

John S. Hatch is a Vancouver writer and film-maker. He can be reached at
johnhatch at canada.com www.jhatchfilms.citymax.com 
 
 
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