While not a supporter of you or your catastrophic agenda, I have no wish for you to suffer the same of fate of President John F Kennedy, which is why I am writing. In the last few days, millions of world citizens have seen the latest tabulation of horror inflicted on Iraq. 655,000 are a lot of corpses, George, far exceeding the rate achieved by Saddam Hussein. Added to this are a massive number of the disfigured, the orphaned and the destitute; the wreckage of infrastructure, the collapse of tertiary education. You have often invoked the "yearning of Iraqis to be free", but what they want most is to be free of your troops.
Think about it - over 500 Iraqis killed every day, a third of which are directly due to actions by coalition forces. The rest of the violent deaths are a consequence of the occupation. Instead of reacting with compassion to the report in The Lancet, you dismissed it as a "discredited guess", despite the widely accepted methodology. 655,00 dead! It's beginning to look like genocide, George, which is why thousands of Iraqis are fleeing the country. A White House induced diaspora. How do you think the new minted exiles feel about you? What justice can they expect for their loss of a homeland? Saddam today is on trial for his crimes. Tomorrow, the man in the dock could be you. Yet this is unlikely, because your administration has twisted international and American law to shield you from legal redress. The question arises, how will the victims of your policies gain restitution?
There is also the matter of the malicious deception relating to the impact of human behavior on the health of the planet. Just as you downplay mortality rates in Iraq, so your administration has long censored the findings of scientists on the threat of climate chaos. Even while hurricane Katrina was raging, US government websites were claiming that its intensity was unrelated to global warming - a big silly lie. Your prolonged obfuscation has led to such a lack of preparedness in America, that much heartbreak is still to come. The weather is blind to political boundaries, George, but you wont even sign Kyoto, which, for all its flaws, is a vital step in achieving a collaborative plan to rescue the future of the human race. In several parts of the world, including the west coast of Alaska, citizens are already abandoning their homes as the coast sinks. How do you think climate refugees feel about a President who remains in a state of denial? How will the future victims of global warming seek restitution?
FAREWELL HABEAS CORUPUS
Your Dr Stranegelove plan to get UN endorsement for a military strike against Pyongyang had to be "headed off at the pass" by - of all countries - China and Russia, which shows how out of kilter with the rest of the world you have taken America. But then America isn't really America anymore, is it, now that you've dumped Habeas Corpus. Ask yourself George, would Garry Cooper have allowed the clock be turned back to the tyranny of pre Magna Carter?
So here's the rub. All over the world a lot of people from all walks of life and of all political persuasions are mightily pissed off with George Bush. Many thousands of such people have lost their livelihood and/or their loved ones through the breathtaking cruelties unleashed by your meddling - how do they achieve restitution? Should their thoughts drift to the Middle East, the festering catalyst of today's geopolitics, they will get riled up all over again, as images of Lebanon's blazing skyline flash in their minds. The world recalls how you rushed extra munitions to Israel while John Bolton stalled the UN peace initiative and Condi Rice played Mozart at a conference in Malaysia, none of you in a hurry to end the hostilities. (As I write, another child in Lebanon is blown up by a US made cluster bomb; one of a million dropped on the ravaged city in the 24 hours prior to the cease fire). Puzzling over their options, the vast numbers aggrieved and embittered by your hypocrisy will think of Palestine, and how you urged its citizens to adopt democracy. When they did, and the choice was not to your liking, you cut off funding. The UN estimates that 75% of people in Gaza are living in poverty; the majority of children are malnourished, few have access to clean water, dysentery is rife. Several times a night Israeli jets break the sound barrier at low altitudes, creating unbearable sonic booms and "widespread distress".(This is treatment is reminiscent of the high decibel sleep elimination tortures inflicted in your military prisons). Another product of the war on terror is State sadism.
Where is all this leading?
The "peace, justice & freedom" platitudes of Western leaders are not worth the air on which they are born. It is only by the deeds of their rulers that citizens discover what has been hatched in the dead of night. One action in particular stands out. It happens occasionally to a remote village in Pakistan and more often in Iraq or Afghanistan (now too descended to anarchy). Our leaders have resurrected a medieval solution-achieving technique and invested it with an aura of legality. It is used almost every day on inhabitants of Gaza Strip. Its use does not require the presentation of evidence. It can be applied to wheelchair bound clerics, inconvenient witnesses and pesky journalists. On a remote screen, often in Florida, a suspect is lined up in the crosshairs, a button is pressed. A media release may follow: "We regret collaterally damaging the target's mother, his seven children and members of his extended family, but it was their choice to associate with a terrorist, who unfortunately wasn't at home when our missile flattened the village". End of story.
So this is the problem, George. Spread far and wide across the globe are thousands of people with a grudge to settle. Now embodied in the psychic legislature of the 21st Century is the tried and tested technique of assassination. Its serial utilization by governments is a curse on the world, and provides the inspiration of imitation to all the disempowered people on earth, the ones who are wounded in hatred and bad at forgiving. So keep away from Dallas, George, and from everywhere else on the globe touched by your madness. You enemies have plenty of time to kill.
Sincerely, RN
PS: To mitigate this threat, I suggest you, 1) withdraw your troops from the war zones (in co-operation with a UN peace keeping strategy), 2) work with the rest of the world in reducing toxic emissions and re-invigorating eco systems,3) restore civil liberties in your own land and, 4) throw yourself at the mercy of the international criminal court, along with your associates.
www.richardneville.com.au
