By Ken Kreps
©2003, all rights reserved
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By Seattle Times Staff and news services
Anti-war protesters gather yesterday in front of the Capitol in Washington
to protest the Bush administration's preparations for war with Iraq. Buses
brought demonstrators from many parts of the country. The largest
concentration of anti-war demonstrators since the Vietnam War converged
on Washington, D.C., yesterday, braving bitter cold in thunderous numbers
and assembling in the shadow of the Capitol dome to voice opposition to
a U.S. military strike against Iraq.
"I know everyone is skittish about saying a number," said U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer. "But this was big. An impressive number."
By the hundreds of thousand, people across our nation turned out, some in bitter cold, to raise their collective voices in protest against the insane, "Hell bent for war" direction of our government.
George W. Bush, our appointed President, is on a collision course with disaster. In doing so he casts our country in the light of an international bully who will not hesitate to use force to gain our (his?) wishes. Fueled by his "Saddam tried to kill my daddy" mentality. Bush charges on without regard to what is right in terms of humanity and economics for our nation.
In all his muddled rhetoric about defending our country from terrorism, three wordss seem to have totally disappeared from his vocabulary. Those three words are, of course, Osama Bin Laden. He seems to have conveniently forgotten the fact that it was Osama and not Saddam Hussein who directed (indeed, ordered) the cowardly attacks on our citizens which killed thousands, Saddam Hussein, to be sure, is a despicable man with no redeeming qualities. The same can be said for the leader of North Korea and several dozen other dictators and despots around the world. However, there is no proof that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with the tragic events of 9/11 (or constitutes a threat to our country) and there is a ton of evidence that Osama Bin Laden had everything to do with it. Yet, pick up a newspaper in any major city in this country and try to find a story that mentions Osam Bin Laden.
Magicians and sleight of hand artists uses misdirection to fool you into thinking they did something which, in reality, they did not. They direct your attention to one of their hands while their other hand is working the trick. George Bush is clever enough in that respect to be a card carrying member of the magician's union. He directs you away from the real threat behind terrorism to one that he can find and destroy. The sad truth is, Bush and the entire intelligence apparatus of the United States Government doesn’t have a clue as to where Osama Bin Laden is or what to do about him, but they do know how to find Iraq and Saddam Hussein. By wiping Hussein (and much of the population of Iraq) off the face of the earth, Bush can claim he is fighting terrorism. And by delivering the Iraq oil fields into the hands of his oil industry buddies, he can quietly solidify his support with some of his largest campaign contributors.
Consider this. We only think Iraq might have nuclear weapons while we know that North Korea has them. Yet we prepare to invade and conquer Iraq and, at the same time, court the leader of North Korea by saying, if he will negotiate with us and back off of his nuclear hard line stance, we will offer food and economic aid to his country. Why is this Bush’s position? Because, in spite of the human carnage and economic ruin a war with Iraq will bring, he knows we can win that war. A war with North Korea holds no such promise.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the domestic agenda of the man forced upon us by a 5 to 4 decision of the Supreme Court, is equally as dismal as is his foreign policy.
Our economy is in a shambles and, fueled in part by one huge tax cut for the wealthy and promises of more of the same to come, our national budget is seriously in the red after showing a large surplus under the Clinton administration. Unemployment is higher than its been in years and the saving and investments of our citizens are worth far, far less than they were just two years ago when Bush took (and I do mean TOOK) office. Recent polls show that 53% of the people disapprove of Bush's handling of the economy while only 43% approve (with 4% undecided).
Adding to the sins of the Bush administration are the transgressions against our civil rights and individual privacy, lead by far right wing religious zealot and Attorney General, John Ashcroft. Suspected enemies of the United States are jailed without charges being filed against them, denied access to attorneys, and can be held as long as the government deems necessary. They can be tried and punished secretly in military tribunals and the results of those tribunals need not be made public. Initially, when these new rules for the handling of detainees, as the government likes to call them, were announced, we were assured they would only apply to foreign nationals and not to American citizens. Now, however, some American citizens are being deprived of their constitutional rights by being held in a similar manner. I have no sympathy with anyone found guilty of terrorism, be they an American citizen or not. They should be publicly tried and if convicted, receive the harshest of punishments including death if warranted. But to hold them indefinitely without charges or access to an attorney makes the United States guilty of some of the very same acts we publicly condemn when done by other countries.
Time and time again, George Bush's actions have demonstrated that he is the President of the privileged few and not of the general population of our country. Here are but two such examples.
Only a few days ago, Bush came out strongly against affirmative action in the University of Michigan case which is to be heard by the Supreme Court later this year. This is made even stranger when you consider the fact that Bush benefited from his own form of affirmative action when he was accepted at Yale University. No one seriously believes that George W. Bush could had gotten into Yale without some serious string pulling by his father.
After vowing his total support of equality for all, in the wake of the Trent Lott debacle, Bush re-nominated Mississippi judge Charles Pickering for federal judgeship in spite of the fact that Pickering was nominated once last year (and was not confirmed) and despite the fact that Pickering's judicial record doesn't make him a champion of either civil rights or equality.
With these two actions, George Bush sent the remaining 8 percent of the black vote he did receive in 2002 away from the Republican party.
The people have spoken with their massive demonstrations against George Bush’s war with Iraq. Meanwhile, Osama Bin Laden is still at large to plot more terror against our country and other parts of the globe as we try in vain to find and stop him. We must continue to speak out against this out-of-control man in the White House until, even he realizes that we know who and what he is and we will not stand for what he and his cohorts are doing to our country.
©2003 by Ken Kreps. This article may not be re-published in electronic or print media without the express written permission of the author. All Rights reserved.
Ken Kreps lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife. He has written a number of published articles, essays and short stories, as well as numerous consumer and business pieces. Ken has also written scripts for Imagination Theater, an award winning audio drama series heard on over 150 commercial radio stations across the nation.
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