Despite the utter cockup that the Bush Administration has made of Iraq,
PNAC theorists continue to believe that remaking the political structure
of the Middle East should proceed as planned. It will be done by force if
necessary, although they hope the example of what the U.S. did to Iraq
will make war unnecessary.
These are men of big ideas who don't really think. They certainly don't
think through what takes place in the real world, when the genies of war
and religious righteousness are let out of the bottle. The military
planners did great with the actual invasion, but when the Saddam
government collapsed, and with it law and order, and much of the
population remained sullen and resentful towards the U.S., the Bush
Administration had no prepared way of dealing with this new situation on
the ground. They were dangerously slow to react, and had to change
Occupation administrators several times; many of the appointees dispatched
by the White House as political favors were young novices with no
expertise or smarts about the complexities of Iraqi cultural and political
life.
No, friends, the PNAC boys and their AEI-type allies are dangerous
ideologues playing with matches in a region soaked in gasoline, and the
U.S. is going to get burned badly even more in years to come unless the
Bush Administration's hold on power is broken. Since censure and
impeachment at this stage are problematic (though we must continue to
agitate for them, making those topics part of the daily discourse), the
surest way to accomplish this is to defeat the Administration's party at
the polls in November 2006. That would result in Democrats taking over the
House, thus breaking the HardRight momentum that has done, and is doing,
such great damage to America's reputation abroad and to our country
internally, especially to our Constitution and the economy.
Burdened with an unpopular president and a corruption-ravaged party, the
GOP looks weak in the early run-up to the November voting. But this
election defeat of the Republicans will happen only if there is a huge
grassroots campaign to defeat them, and if there is genuine reform of the
voting process. Right now, the GOP continues effectively to control the
voting machinery and the vote-counting software, and may well have
manipulated the election results in 2002 and 2004. We must work tirelessly
to ensure electoral integrity and transparent ballot-counting.
We don't need or want an emperor in our country. We don't need huge tax
cuts for the wealthy when the economy is stagnating or tanking. We don't
need more "pre-emptive" wars, we don't need more shredding of
constitutional due process. Instead, we need opposition leaders with big
ideas who are capable of creative thinking. We need peace and justice in
the Middle East to help alter the chemistry of the soil in which Islamist
terrorism grows. We need jobs and economic growth at home, and we need
authentic and effective "homeland security" consistent with our civil
liberties. In short, we need a new Administration, which means that we
need to get on with our serious work to make all this change happen. ASAP.
Organize, organize!, ORGANIZE! The first primaries are only several months
away.
PNAC theorists continue to believe that remaking the political structure
of the Middle East should proceed as planned. It will be done by force if
necessary, although they hope the example of what the U.S. did to Iraq
will make war unnecessary.
These are men of big ideas who don't really think. They certainly don't
think through what takes place in the real world, when the genies of war
and religious righteousness are let out of the bottle. The military
planners did great with the actual invasion, but when the Saddam
government collapsed, and with it law and order, and much of the
population remained sullen and resentful towards the U.S., the Bush
Administration had no prepared way of dealing with this new situation on
the ground. They were dangerously slow to react, and had to change
Occupation administrators several times; many of the appointees dispatched
by the White House as political favors were young novices with no
expertise or smarts about the complexities of Iraqi cultural and political
life.
No, friends, the PNAC boys and their AEI-type allies are dangerous
ideologues playing with matches in a region soaked in gasoline, and the
U.S. is going to get burned badly even more in years to come unless the
Bush Administration's hold on power is broken. Since censure and
impeachment at this stage are problematic (though we must continue to
agitate for them, making those topics part of the daily discourse), the
surest way to accomplish this is to defeat the Administration's party at
the polls in November 2006. That would result in Democrats taking over the
House, thus breaking the HardRight momentum that has done, and is doing,
such great damage to America's reputation abroad and to our country
internally, especially to our Constitution and the economy.
Burdened with an unpopular president and a corruption-ravaged party, the
GOP looks weak in the early run-up to the November voting. But this
election defeat of the Republicans will happen only if there is a huge
grassroots campaign to defeat them, and if there is genuine reform of the
voting process. Right now, the GOP continues effectively to control the
voting machinery and the vote-counting software, and may well have
manipulated the election results in 2002 and 2004. We must work tirelessly
to ensure electoral integrity and transparent ballot-counting.
cuts for the wealthy when the economy is stagnating or tanking. We don't
need more "pre-emptive" wars, we don't need more shredding of
constitutional due process. Instead, we need opposition leaders with big
ideas who are capable of creative thinking. We need peace and justice in
the Middle East to help alter the chemistry of the soil in which Islamist
terrorism grows. We need jobs and economic growth at home, and we need
authentic and effective "homeland security" consistent with our civil
liberties. In short, we need a new Administration, which means that we
need to get on with our serious work to make all this change happen. ASAP.
Organize, organize!, ORGANIZE! The first primaries are only several months
away.
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international
relations, has taught at various universities, worked as a writer-editor
with the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently co-edits The Crisis Papers
( www.crisispapers.org ). He is available for public speaking events. For
comments: >>
crisispapers@comcast.net
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