Bush Gloats over Saddam, Like Salome over John The Baptist
By: Teresa Simon-Noble
Gloating: to feel or express great, often malicious joy or self satisfaction.
Webster's II - New Riverside University Dictionary""
Something of the gloating of Salome on seeing John the Baptist's head served on a silver platter beamed on Bush's face Sunday night as it splashed briefly on the television screen during the opening ceremony of a Holiday Concert he attended, "after all", following the capture of Saddam Hussein.
Our Commander-in-Chief; the Thief of Election 2000; the Slaughterer of Medicare as we know it; the Refuse-to-Sign the Kyoto Protocol man; the Change or Suffocate sixty-five-year-old-laws that protect w or kers' right to overtime pay; the Silencer of free speech, people's right to dissent; the Father of a withering middle class""our Liar Extra or dinaire (despite what Bob Novak rep or ts: "When Saddam's capture became public Sunday m or ning, presidential aides were instructed to make the White House a "gloat-free zone." Acc or dingly, statements by staffers were low-key. Bush himself managed to restrain his natural high spirits with a sober four-minute speech that made clear that armed struggle in Iraq is not over") gloated Sunday night, beaming f or the news cameras to see, a self satisfied, mission accomplished look on his face, as the military band, the National Anthem and the presentation of col or s opened the celebration of the religious season of Advent""the coming of the Christ Child.
What a contrapuntal television scene. The Christ Child, b or n in a stable, surrounded by ad or ing parents, loving animals who offered their warmth to keep him warm in a peace filled cave, who elicits and calls f or th a f or getting of self on those who come to ad or e Him, is welcomed on the Bush stage by a beaming-with-self-satisfaction man, his military band, and the military col or s being presented to the self satisfied man.
Missing from the Bush stage on this television shot was Poppy Bush whose face must have looked pleasurably or gastic when his son handed him Saddam Hussein on a silver platter.
What contrapuntal emotions of joy and exultation on the capture of an arch enemy to the message of f or giveness being laid on the stage by a Baby in a manger!
Sure. Saddam Hussein never was any s or t of John the Baptist and the Bushes understanding of the Christian message is questionable on many levels. Yet, Saddam Hussein never posed a threat to the United States . He did not have the Weapons of Mass Destruction upon which the bombing of Baghdad was sold to many frightened Americans and celebrated by many members of the People f or the New American Century.
In the Salome st or y, Herod of Antipas who was criticized to his face by John the Baptist f or his marriage to his sister-in-law, was fearful that John the Baptist could incite people against him f or his m or al turpitude and other evil deeds. The Bushes became fearful of the power Saddam Hussein exercised when he chose not to toe the Bush line. Herod or dered John the Baptist captured and bound in prison. Salome became obsessed with John the Baptist and when, acc or ding to some st or ies, she could not seduce him, she, ultimately, exacted his head to be served on a silver platter.
Poppy, who never captured Hussein when he sent him fleeing in the desert in 1991, must have become obsessed about the fact, particularly after he lost the election to Bill Clinton in 1992.
The father's obsession became the son's hon or is causa. After 9/11 the hunt f or Saddam became Juni or 's overt quest. To pursue it he blurred the lines. He told the w or ld that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction which have not been found. He told the w or ld that Hussein was connected to Bin Laden and to Al Qaeda, and he, hoity-toitedly told the w or ld that Saddam Hussein had threatened to kill Ole Poppy.
Poppy grieved that he did not have Hussein's head on a silver platter. Juni or wanted it on the silver platter no matter what the cost in American lives, the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians; America 's standing in the w or ld or in the court of public opinion.
Many, including Dick Cheney and Colin Powell, are celebrating Bush's Silver Platter. Be ware that it is the same silver platter upon which the Halliburton gouging of Iraqi oil and American tax payers' money is whitewashed. It is the same silver platter upon which, Powell's lies to the United Nations are turned into virtues by a cacophony of the scavenging press. It is the same silver platter upon which Bush is serving us our Democracy, our Constitution, our Medicare Health and Prescription Drug Benefits. It is the same silver platter upon which he is serving us our dwindling middle class, our right to Overtime Pay, our right to dissent and our true reason f or the season of Advent.
Saddam Hussein is no John the Baptist but Bush's Silver Platter is no cause f or celebration.
Teresa Simon-Noble
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Teresa Simon-Noble fchiok@bellsouth.net is a computer activist for peace and social justice. She is a f or mer mental health clinician. A poet and a freelance writer, her w or k has been published in several online publications
