[Fwd: Re: [Peace-discuss] The End of the Road for George W. Bush...(?)]

[C. G. Estabrook]

The moralistic frenzy seemed to be directed at Bush himself as the 
source of the evil.  That's blaming the monkey rather than the 
organ-grinder for the bad music.  The real metamorphosis is the change 
of the administration -- announced by the NIE -- from being dominated by 
the War Party to acquiescing to the more restrained but still vicious 
imperialism of the foreign policy establishment. Institutionally, from 
Cheney's OVP and Rumsfeld's Pentagon to the State Department, CIA and 
uniformed military. And of course the struggle goes on. --CGE

Brussel wrote:
> I didn't catch the moralistic frenzy in Hedges piece, but then again I 
> do see a danger from theocrats (anti-Darwinians). Also, I don't believe 
> in a Bush metamorphosis (unborn again?). He still claims "All's on the 
> table" regarding satanic Iran.  --mkb
> 
> 
> On Jan 17, 2008, at 6:04 PM, C. G. ESTABROOK wrote:
> 
>> Hedges' moralistic frenzy seems to have got the best of him, just as 
>> it did when he insisted that anti-Darwinians threaten us with 
>> fascism.  It leads him here to mistake Bush Jr. for a cause rather 
>> than a symptom of US imperialism.
>>
>> It may indeed be "the end of the road" for GWB, but only because the 
>> policy that his administration followed and is following in the ME is 
>> essentially continuous with that of the preceding (and probably 
>> following) administration, and it is unlikely that there will be any 
>> major changes in it.  The US will continue to insist on controlling ME 
>> energy resources as a strangle-hold on its real economic competitors, 
>> Europe and NE Asia, both vast oil importers.
>>
>> The dangerousness of the current administration was an artefact of the 
>> 9/11/2001 attacks and the coming to power of an extreme end of the US 
>> foreign policy spectrum, who still exist as a war party within this 
>> administration.  But their influence has faded, perhaps in part 
>> because Bush, never a neocon, has switched sides since the dismissal 
>> of Rumsfeld and subsided into the arms of the FP pros in State and 
>> Defense. This is the real metamorphosis of this administration.
>>
>> There are serious internal fights continuing, perhaps even including 
>> attempts to bypass the chain of command by the war party (Syria 
>> bombing, live nukes across the US, fake Hormuz video, etc.?).  and it 
>> is still possible that they may get their Iran war.  But the struggle 
>> is larger than within the mind of GWB.
>>
>> Do you suppose Hedges learnt his anti-political conspiracism ("bad 
>> things happen because bad people are doing them, and they have to be 
>> found and stopped") at Harvard Divinity School?  It wasn't the vogue 
>> when I was there, admittedly some years before him; and he certainly 
>> wasn't listening to his instructors like Harvey Cox.  --CGE
>>
>>
>>> At 01:38 PM 1/14/2008, Morton K. Brussel wrote:
>>>
>>>> Is Chris Hedges an optimist, a realist?  The article below should be 
>>>> read together with the comments that follow at Common Dreams:
>>>> http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/14/6354/
>>>> / Published on Monday, January 14, 2008 by // _TruthDig.com_ 
>>>> <http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080113_the_end_of_the_road_for_george_w_bush/>_ 
>>>>
>>>> _/*T**he End of the Road for George W. Bush
>>>>
>>>> by Chris Hedges
>>>> ...