[Peace-discuss] Agenda Item Suggestion -- Possible Action Idea

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Sounds like a good idea.  And perhaps the sooner the better.  The 
following is from Ray McGovern, a 27-year veteran analyst of the CIA and 
co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). --CGE]


Three years ago Justin Frank, M.D., a psychiatrist here in Washington, 
wrote a book “Bush on the Couch” in which he provided keen insights into 
the president’s mode of thinking—or not thinking.

Eager to use every tool at our disposal, VIPS recently asked Dr. Frank 
to update his observations, with a view to forecasting, to the extent 
possible, how Bush is likely to react to the building pressures of the 
coming weeks and months. We will issue, perhaps as early as this week, 
Dr. Frank’s latest analysis, fortified by our own input. But we already 
have his preliminary analysis; there is no other word for it: Scary.

In a quick note to us this morning [July 23], Dr. Frank noted we are 
“dealing with a potentially cornered man [who] could lash out, and it is 
possible that the best way would be to bomb Iran.... Whatever the root 
causes of Bush’s pathology, we have a dangerous man running 
things...grandiose and unchecked.”

Some snippets from the Memorandum that Dr. Frank is drafting for 
issuance under VIPS auspices:

“George W. Bush is without conscience...and destructive, willfully so. 
He has always likes to break things...most shocking is the way he is 
breaking our armed forces.

“He doesn’t care about others, is indifferent to their suffering...He is 
almost constitutionally missing the ability to sympathize or 
empathize...More indifferent to reality than out of touch with it, he 
makes up whatever story he wants.

“Ultimately, he is psychologically unstable...His goal is to destroy 
things [and he can do that] without experiencing anxiety or a sense of 
responsibility. An equally important goal is to protect himself from 
shame, from being wrong, from being found small and weak.”

So what do we do?

At a similarly critical juncture, Dr. King was typically direct: "We 
must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited 
vision, but we must speak.... there is such a thing as being too 
late.... Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with 
lost opportunity.... Over the bleached bones of numerous civilizations 
are written the pathetic words: ‘Too late.’"


Neil Parthun wrote:
> I was thinking of a panel discussion with a Q/A session.  It could end 
> up taking a debate format.  It was more an 'out of the 
> demonstration'-box idea that Ricky suggested as a possible option for 
> AWARE to take.  I concurred and that's why I would like to suggest it as 
> an action AWARE could take.
> 
> Don't mourn. Organize,
>                     x Neil x
> 
> You can't really be strong until you see a funny side to things.
> [ken kesey, 1935-2001]
> 
> Keep your blood clean, your body lean and your mind sharp.
> [henry rollins, 1961-]
> 
> I read somewhere that when a person takes part in community action, his 
> health improves.  Something happens to him or to her biologically. It's 
> like a tonic.
> [studs terkel, 1912-]
> 
> Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you 
> must make that attempt.  That's morality, that's religion.  That's art.  
> That's life.
> [phil ochs, 1940-1976]
>