Bush merely followed the lead of Reagan, ignoring the fact that most Americans really don't mind pooling their money so that the common wealth can be used for the common good. Most people like to help those who need help. Just look at how many of us give freely to food drives to help the food banks try to relieve some of the hunger in the land. Look at how many of us give freely to the toy drives to give a Christmas present to some of the children of poor families. And look at how many of us give freely to all the relief drives for victims of natural disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, etc. That willingness to help those who need help is built in us, innately, to ensure the survival of the species. We want to use the common wealth for the common good. But, we should be doing that collectively, fairly and equitably through our taxes and public service agencies, so that needed assistance and relief is fair and steady and certain, not dependent on the whim of individuals and on temporary, sporadic and sometimes less than successful efforts to collect voluntary private charitable donations and contributions from individuals.
Another Bush initiative is equally wrong, but he doesn't talk about it much. It involves his plans for a nuclear weapons revival with new weapons development, and it is a part of his overall plan designed to "further ensure U.S. global nuclear dominance in the future." But he doesn't talk about it much because he knows it would not be accepted by the American people. And rightly so. It's not only an insanely foolish idea, but it has been proven scientifically to be unreasonable and inadvisable. Despite that, Bush is proceeding with it. A report by the Natural Resources Defense Council revealed that the DOE spent $6.5 Billion on nuclear weapons in 2004. Bush requested $6.8 Billion more for 2005 and a total of $30 Billion over the following four years, and those amounts don't even include his anti-missile program costs.
Bush's folly pushes us backwards into more danger, more conflict, more competition for global power, and more waste of taxpayer's money, putting us in greater jeopardy of another nuclear arms race. In fact, Bush's arrogance and folly has spurred the Russians to start asserting their military power in the world again, which is leading us into another cold war with Russia. So, rather than follow the insane, backward, foolish path Bush is on, we must show leadership forward, in the opposite direction. The U.S. and all other nations must simply destroy all nuclear weapons, put an end to the nuclear weapons era, and an end to military imperialism.
Another example of misleading and deceptive tactics of the Bush Regime is their use and reliance on avoidance/diversion tactics with regard to the news media, and the tragic thing about it is that reporters do not even bother to press issues or follow up or investigate. Most of the time reporters simply allow the Bush Administration to dictate the news and ignore or dismiss criticism, rather than be held accountable for mistakes, offenses, transgressions, and abuses of power. Fortunately, that doesn't work all the time, but it works far too often.
This has become a very dangerous trend and it is very damaging to democracy. In fact, it has already damaged our democracy. It's one of the reasons George W. Bush and the spokespersons for his administration were able to ignore the international community and make false claims to mislead the American people so he could launch his preemptive unilateral war against Iraq. Journalists simply did not do their job as they should have, and that enabled and allowed the Bush Regime to get away with it. That has become clear to all those who have recognized it, and it was inevitable that the truth would come out eventually.
The truth is that if American journalists had been doing their job correctly, the American people would have known about most of the intelligence, reports and evidence that the Bush Administration simply ignored because it didn't support their opinions and justify their war plan for Iraq. After all, they ignored all the reports and evidence that: 1) Saddam Hussein did not have a relationship with al Queda; 2) that Iraq was not trying to buy materials from Niger for an Iraqi nuclear weapons program; 3) that Hussein was not planning an attack on the U.S.; and 4) that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The Bush Regime ignored all the intelligence, reports and evidence. Instead, they claimed otherwise, and the mainstream American news media failed to investigate or report the real truth about it.
More importantly, if the news media had done their job we all would have known the real reason why Bush insisted on invading Iraq, because it was unwittingly and brazenly revealed two years before the war in a document entitled Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century, written in September 2000 by a right-wing conservative think-tank called Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
According to the PNAC web site when I read it, it was the brain child of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Lewis Libby, William Kristol, and Jeb Bush. Others who are associated with the PNAC and probably had a hand in developing the ideas expressed in the document were Richard Perle, Elliot Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennet, Dan Quayle, Ellen Bork, and other lesser-known, like-minded right-wing conservative ideologues - and it's difficult not to assume that George W. Bush was a major player even though his name was left off the list for some reason.
As I wrote in my memoirs, the "Rebuilding America's Defenses" document reveals their shameless and blatant plan for world domination and imperialism. It reveals that even before they gained the power of the presidency, the leaders of the Bush Administration apparently planned to invade and occupy Iraq regardless of whether Saddam Hussein was still in power, so they could gain a better and more permanent foothold in that oil-rich region. It discusses "American global leadership" that will "shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests," and it calls for a "dominant American role in the Mid-East." It describes American armed forces abroad as "the cavalry on the new American frontier." And, as incredible and amazing as this is, the PNAC blueprint supports and expands an earlier document written by Wolfowitz and Libby that says the U.S. must "discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role."
Considering that, it is apparent that Bush wants to gain and keep control in Iraq. And, because has "privatized" his war, he is serving the interests of corporate profiteers like Blackwater and others like Cheney's company, Halliburton, and its subsidiaries like Brown & Root. Clearly their long-term plan is to the benefit of Halliburton and other American corporations and oil companies.
In fact, that's why Halliburton and its subsidiaries were given a no- bid contract, not only to control Iraq's oil, but to also profiteer by providing other services formerly done by the military. It's Bush's new privatization of war, which is highly beneficial to American corporate profiteers and highly expensive for American taxpayers. It's just another part of their "globalism" movement, which is designed to enable American mega-corporations to virtually dominate business in the whole world in the name of God and Country.
That's really what it's all about. After all, it's extremely difficult to believe Bush has any love for Arabs or Muslims. In fact, his closest "religious" advisors are actually right-wing bigots and hypocrites who claim to be Christian authorities while they erroneously judge and condemn Islam as an "evil, wicked religion." That's one of the reasons most Muslims know very well what Bush's real motivation is, and it's one of the reasons so many of them want to kill Bush's occupying American forces. They know about Bush's hidden agenda.
You see, Bush's hidden agenda is not only about the U.S. becoming a dominant, controlling force in that oil rich region. That's a big part of it, but Bush also persists in the occupation of Iraq because his "religious" advisors have convinced him that his war in Iraq is "God's Will" and fulfills the prophecy of the warring "sixth angel" who "poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates..." (Revelation 16:12) They don't realize that chapter is mostly symbolic, just as so many things are in the New Testament.
Granted, that symbolism may have meant some killing in Iraq was foreseen and foretold. However, that does not mean this long horrible war must continue, and it certainly does not mean that God caused it or would sanction it. John's symbolism in the Book of Revelation was mainly designed to portray that those who "blaspheme" against God suffer in many ways. But it's not because God is not merciful and loving. In fact, God loves us all and does not want anyone to be killed. It's because those who judge, hate and curse their enemy actually curse God, because they do not realize what God really is. In hating and cursing their enemies they unwittingly hate and curse God and themselves, and they are at war with God and their own spirit-soul. That's why Jesus said we should not judge, and if we are tempted to judge we should resist not evil but love good, overcome evil with good, and love even our enemy, because our enemy is usually just a reflection of our self.
Unfortunately, George W. Bush doesn’t see that, and that’s why yet another example of Bush's folly and arrogance is in his so-called "Patriot Act," which has deprived many Americans of long-standing civil liberties and rights. That’s largely because there has been no official oversight of surveillance activities. That was clearly revealed in December 2005 when Bush was forced to admit that he had ordered government agents in the NSA to tap the phones of American citizens without necessary legislated court approval. Even though Bush was very well aware that there was a FISA law requiring court approval for wiretapping; even though he knew the FISA law has a provision that in the case of dire emergencies a wiretap could be performed and the court could be notified afterward to provide a proper check to ensure compliance with laws; and even though Bush had even gotten the FISA law amended to allow him wait 72 hours after a wiretap to notify the court rather than the 24 hours that the law originally stipulated, Bush STILL had ordered his security forces to wiretap and eavesdrop on whoever they wanted at any time, without ANY court oversight whatsoever.
Bush chose to assume unchecked power to wiretap and eavesdrop, and it is apparent that he did this because he did not want anyone in authority to know what his government operatives were actually doing. It is also apparent that in this case, as in others (like torture of prisoners, which is another story), Bush feels he is above the law. Even worse, Bush then tried to claim that those who criticize him for it are simply against surveillance activities. He deceptively tried to avoid the real issue, which is that his regime has done it illegally without required court oversight, assuming unchecked power to covertly spy and wiretap, just like dictatorial regimes do.
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