History
will show that George W. Bush and his conservative
friends rigged the presidential election in 2000.
It will also demonstrate that Mr. Bush lied to
the American people and to the world about Saddam
Hussein's supposed campaign to build, deploy,
and use weapons of mass destruction against Great
Britain and the United States. History will record
that the resident in the White House sent American
soldiers off to kill and die in Iraq without proper
armor for their bodies and for their vehicles;
that Mr. Bush invaded Iraq in spite of warnings
that the Iraqi people would resist an occupying
army; that he did not have a coherent military
strategy for defeating a guerrilla-style insurgency;
and that he has been willing to sacrifice hundreds
of thousands of Iraqi citizens, and tens of thousands
or dead and wounded Americans in order to secure
Iraq's vast oil reserves.
But
did Mr. Bush single-handedly dismantle or steal
"American democracy"? Unfortunately,
many people appear to believe that before God
told George W. Bush that he must become "the
decider," the United States was a beacon
of peace, justice, and democracy throughout the
world. The Central Intelligence Agency did not
torture people, or teach others how to torture
people, in places like Vietnam, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Columbia, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The United
States Congress and the Senate did not support
dictators in Chile, death squads in Argentina,
and homicidal killers in the Middle East and Africa.
Indeed,
before G.W. Bush, Congress refused to support
megalomaniacs who systematically violate the human
rights of their own citizens. Congress showed
great compassion for poor Americans by appropriating
funds to rebuild North Philadelphia, the South
Bronx, East New York, South Chicago, and Baltimore.
Before Mr. Bush became President, American mercenaries
did not assassinate people Wall Street deemed
unfriendly to corporate interests. The School
of Americas did not train soldiers from Central
and South American in the art of torture and murder.
The United States did not engage in chemical warfare
by destroying the mangrove forests and jungles
of Vietnam with Agent Orange, our military did
not kill between 2-5 million Vietnamese people.
Once
upon a time, according to this revisionist history,
the entire world admired the United States' commitment
to peace and social justice. When the United States
bombed Iraqi civilians during the first Gulf war,
the world understood that it was for a noble cause.
When the U.S. government helped impose sanctions
on Iraq that resulted in the deaths of 500,000
children, the world applauded this commitment
to creating a world that works for everyone. When
the United States supported Iran in a war with
Iraq that killed more than a million people, we
were demonstrating our commitment to spreading
democracy in the Middle East.
Mr.
Bush is merely the latest CEO of an empire that
has used, and will continue to use, assassination,
preemptive strikes, invasion, and war to expand
its power and influence throughout the world.
Historians will surely conclude that G.W. Bush
is the worst President in American history, but
they will not say that he is responsible for the
fact that many of our urban neighborhoods resemble
war zones. He didn't create the climate of fear
that compels millions of Americans to carry guns
or to keep guns in their vehicles and homes. He
isn't responsible for an economic system in which
CEOs make 400 times as much as the average worker-as
much in one day as workers make in one year. He
didn't create the myth that an economic system
that exploits and punishes the poor while rewarding
the rich is not just compatible with but the essence
of democracy.
George
W. Bush should be impeached for lying to the American
people, and then he and other members of his administration
should be put on trial for war crimes. It doesn't
appear that Congress has the will to hold Mr.
Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Richard
Cheney, and others to account for destroying Iraq.
And it does appear that many people, including
progressives who should know better, will continue
to express nostalgia for some golden pre-Bush
era of democracy.
The
Republican and the Democratic parties are responsible
for creating a dysfunctional, dangerous, divided,
nation. Both parties support the military industrial
complex that will, ironically, bring down the
American empire. George W. bush will strut and
fret upon the stage for a while longer; then,
he will return to his ranch and write his memoirs.
He will be remembered as a man who believes that
Jesus approves of dropping cluster bombs on children.
