So begins one of the world's great books about obsession--the one Miss Elders tried to make you read in high school--"Moby-Dick" by Herman Melville.
Lately, I'm thinking we should all call ourselves Ishmael.
Like that edgy, storm-tossed storyteller, we've borne witness to our own national tale of obsession, destiny and ruin. For years we've watched George W. Bush threaten, mislead and browbeat others into following him through uncharted waters, like some latter day Captain Ahab.
In the end, Bush handled the killing of Saddam Hussein about like Ahab handled killing that whale. He bungled it.
Taunts and curses on one of the holiest days of the Muslim year, crude gestures and death imagery, and last insults against ancestors of enemies. Such marked the final moments of that monster-turned-martyr, Saddam Hussein. He lives yet in a million re-enactments on the Internet. Sightings occur daily.
"Death to Moby Dick!" said Ahab, in Chapter 36. "God hunt us all if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!"
"We're on the hunt!" Bush said more than once, referring to Osama bin Laden. "Dead or alive," he vowed. The rapidity with which our war on bin Laden morphed into his war on Saddam Hussein is a measure of Bush's obsession.
To plumb the depths of such obsession is to enter a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare. Oedipal issues regarding king-and-prince, blood vengeance, rebellion, license, betrayal, oaths and will-to-power mark our ongoing epic.
"He tried to kill my father," said Bush, who obviously regarded his father's decision not to finish Saddam off in the Gulf War as a mistake. "Small reason was there to doubt, then, that ever since that almost fatal encounter," writes Melville, in Chapter 41, "Ahab had cherished a wild vindictiveness against the whale. The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them...."
It's often been suggested that Melville saw Ahab's ship, the Pequod, as symbolic of the whole world. In the end, Ahab's obsessions lead to the destruction of that world.
Had Bush set out to destroy the world he could hardly have devised a better plan than the one we've seen him enact. Signs are that he intends to continue down the path of destruction he's laid out. More nukes, more war, more environmental degradation, more energy dependence, more catastrophic debt, more broken treaties, all likely await his final two years.
Despite warnings from Bush's generals and his own father's advisers; despite defeat of Republicans in the last election, the lowest poll numbers of Bush's career, the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, Iraq's slide into civil war, a death toll exceeding half a million by some estimates, including 3,000 dead American troops, Bush has made it clear he's staying the course in Iraq, at least for now. A finger in the wind suggests Bush intends sending 20,000 more troops to Baghdad. Ongoing construction of the super-expensive American embassy and military bases continues apace. Meanwhile an American fleet gathers in the Persian Gulf.
What does it all mean?
Seymour Hersh, writing in New Yorker magazine, suggested in November that Bush is rolling the dice. He's going double-or-nothing to try and pull his presidency-his place in history--from the drink.
Unless he meets a storm of resistance-perhaps even IF he meets such a storm-he'll likely bomb Iran's nuclear facilities sometime in coming months.
Don Williams is a prize-winning columnist for "Knoxville Voice," professional blogger at Knoxvoice.com and a contributing editor to Media With Conscience (MWCnews.net). He is a also a short story writer, freelance journalist and the founding editor (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Yes, Saddam lives on in the hearts and minds of those who see him now as the greatest martyr of the Islamic Fundamentalists' struggle with "The Great Satan". The depth and breadth of Saddam's crimes are rivaled and equaled only by the similar dimensions of DUBYA's. Yet, no one in this country would look upon DUBYA as a martyr should he ever be put to death for his crimes against humanity. However, we can be sure that Saddam will now wield more power in his death than he ever did in his life.
That statement should strike a serious note of fear in the heart of everyone who lives in America. If we didn't have enough reason to fear reprisal and retribution from possible Islamic terrorists, (and others who sympathize with their struggle) the fact that their world now has a new martyr, a new icon to prove the need to take out, "The Great Satan," we would all do well to keep our eyes peeled for some real fun in the form of bombs on our own soil.
Isn't it a good thing that in chasing his white whale, DUBYA has brought the Pequod that is our ship of state closer to destruction? If his actions in beginning the Iraq war didn't make the United States less safe, it's a surety that the martyrdom of Saddam Hussein has. If the reactions to the death of Saddam are to be any indication, we can rest assured that now Iraq will be the place from which a future terrorist attack focused on the US will originate.
What a fabulous job DUBYA has done. He destabilized one of the most stable areas of the Middle East. He turned Iraq into a war zone. He brought about the deaths of almost 700,000 innocent Iraqis. He has killed over 3,000 American soldiers. And as the coup de grace, he has created another martyr for the cause.
Not bad work unless one considers that it was all done to prove to the world that DUBYA was courageous. Not bad work unless one considers the fallout from his stupidity will haunt America for decades to come, perhaps even centuries.
Ahab was a f*cking amateur by comparison. His obsession only killed a handful of men, and destroyed a ship. DUBYA's obsession has come close to killing a million people, destroyed one country, and it promises to destroy our country as well. That's quite an accomplishment for a C- average Harvard graduate. Imagine the state of things if he had really applied himself!
Blessed be!
Pappy
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Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Jan 5, 2007 at 4:26:58 PM
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