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May
8, 2003
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May
9, 2003
The Karamazov
Question
What Price for
Paradise?
by CHRIS FLOYD
"They have put too high a price
on harmony; we can't afford to pay so much for admission. And
therefore I return my ticket."
Ivan Karamazov, The
Brothers Karamazov, Book
Five, Chapter Four: "Rebellion."
A man appeared in the doorway of the Oval Office.
He wasn't noticed at first, in the bustle around the desk of
the president, where George W. Bush was preparing to announce
to the world that the "decapitation raid" he had launched
on Baghdad a few hours before was in fact the beginning of his
long-planned, much-anticipated invasion of Iraq.
A woman fussed with the president's hair,
which had been freshly cut for the televised appearance. A make-up
artist dabbed delicate touches of rouge on the president's cheeks.
Another attendant fluttered in briefly to adjust the president's
tie, which, like the $6,000 suit the president was wearing, had
arrived that morning from a Chicago couturier. As for the president's
$900 designer shoes -- which, as a recent news story had pointed
out playfully, were not only made by the same Italian craftsman
who supplied Saddam Hussein with footwear, but were also the
same size and make as those ordered by the Iraqi dictator --
they had been carefully polished earlier by yet another aide,
even though they would of course be out of sight during the broadcast.
In addition to all of this activity,
the president's political advisors and speechwriters were also
making last-minute adjustments to the brief speech, while giving
the president pointers about his delivery: "Keep your gaze
and your voice steady. Project firmness of purpose. Confidence,
calmness, character. And short phrases, lightly punched. Don't
worry, the breaks and stresses will be marked on the teleprompter."
It's little wonder that no one saw the
man as he advanced slowly to the center of the room. He stood
there silently, until the sense of his presence crept up on the
others. One by one, they turned to look at him, this unauthorized
figure, this living breach of protocol. He was, in almost every
sense, non-descript. He wore a plain suit of indeterminate color;
his features and his skin betrayed no particular race. He had
no badge, no papers; how had he come to be here, where nothing
is allowed that is not licensed by power?
Then, more astonishing, they saw his
companion: a two-year-old girl standing by his side. A mass of
tousled hair framed her face, a plain red dress covered her thin
body. She too was silent, but not as still as the man. Instead,
she turned her head this way and that, her eyes wide with curiosity,
drawn especially by the bright television lights that shone on
the president.
A Marine guard reached for his holster,
but the man raised his hand, gently, and the guard's movement
was arrested. The aides and attendants stepped back then stood
rooted, as if stupefied, their ranks forming a path from the
man at the room's center to the president's desk. The president,
brilliant in the light, alone retained the freedom to move and
speak. "Who are you?" he asked, rising from his chair.
"What do you want?"
The man put his hand tenderly on the
back of the girl's head and came forward with her. "I have
a question for you, and an opportunity," the man replied.
"I've heard it said that you are righteous, and wish to
do good for the world."
"I am," said the president.
"I wish only to do God's will, as He in His wisdom reveals
it to me. In His will is the whole good of the world. What is
your question, what is your opportunity? Be quick; I have mighty
business at hand."
The man nodded. "If tonight you
could guarantee the good of the world -- peace and freedom, democracy
and prosperity, now and forever; if tonight, you could relieve
the suffering of all those who labor under tyranny and persecution,
all those who groan in poverty and disease; if tonight, you could
redeem the anguish of creation, past and future, now and forever;
if tonight, you could guarantee this universal reconciliation,
by the simple expedient of taking this" -- here the man
suddenly produced a black pistol and held it out to the president
-- "and putting a bullet through the brain of this little
one here, just her, no one else: would you do it? That is my
question, this is your opportunity."
With firmness of purpose, the president
grasped the pistol and walked around the desk. With confidence,
calmness, and steady hand, he pressed the barrel to the girl's
head and pulled the trigger. Her eyes, which had grown even wider
with her smile at the approach of the nicely dressed man and
his rosy cheeks, went black with blood in the instant shattering
of her skull. Her body spun round -- once, twice, three times
in all -- from the force of the shot, then fell, with the remnant
of her mutilated head flailing wildly, in a heap on the floor
of the Oval Office.
At that moment, the man faded, like a
dream, into nothingness. The aides and attendants, unfrozen,
stepped back into their tasks. The room was again a whirl of
activity, like a hive. The president -- the dematerialized gun
no longer in his hand -- strode confidently back to his chair.
He winked at a nearby aide and pumped his fist: "Feel good!"
he exulted.
The speech went off without a hitch.
The hair was perfect, the voice was steady, the phrases short
and lightly punched. No one saw the blood and bits of brain that
clung to the president's $900 designer shoes; they were, of course,
out of sight during the broadcast.
Chris Floyd
is a columnist for the Moscow Times and a regular contributor
to CounterPunch. He can be reached at: cfloyd72@hotmail.com
Yesterday's
Features
Julie
Hilden
When It's a Crime to Visit Your Son
Mickey
Z.
Partisan Protests?
Mark
Zepezauer
Evil is as Evil Does
David Lindorff
The Coming Senior Revolution
Abu
Spinoza
The Detention of Dr. Huda Ammash
Ben
Tripp
The Other "F" Word
Norman
Madarasz
God in the Service of the Security
State: a Dispatch from Brazil
Stew Albert
Pushovers
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/08
Website
of the Day
Department of Sexual Security
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