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CounterPunch
January
10, 2003
CEO Bush and the Muddling of
American Minds
By JOSH FRANK
While Americans were sleeping in the wee morning
hours of January 8th, eight B-1 bombers began their decent south
to Oman, positioning for war. They are down there protecting
us from Iraq's potential danger to the United States. Even
though chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix claims Iraq may
not even possess weapons of mass destruction.
But war is big business, and President
Bush is a businessman. His sputtering mind jostles, "Iraq
got oil, US need oil... Oil make money! War make money... Me
like money!" So he surrounds himself with oil-men, and
military folks, 28 ex-Lockheed Martin execs in his administration
alone to be exact.
Being a Harvard-MBA grad, CEO George
knows who to surround himself with, and he obviously understands
marketing. He knows he has to suck the consumer (Americans)
in, and sell his product, in this case war with Iraq. He may
have crashed an oil company or two, but you can learn a lot
from mistakes. He knows he must disguise his true intentions
of controlling Mid-East oil with his ol' advertising scheme
that equates Saddam with Hitler. He doesn't have any real competition
to contend with, the Democratic Party is complacently silent.
Maybe its because they don't think they've got a vastly different
product to push, or maybe its because those Lockheed Martin
execs gave them more money last campaign season than they did
the Republicans, I don't know. Bush just isn't losing sleep
over the whole deal. Monopolies don't like competition, but
that's okay, he doesn't have any.
No worries then that North Korea most
likely has nuclear capability and recently forced U.N. monitors
out. He's got the focus of Iraq going for him. It is even the
craze in Britain these days I've heard. This Saddam guy is bad!
He's got nerve gas and nuclear ingredients. No matter that the
United States gases the Andes Mountains in Columbia daily,
ruining ecosystems, and families' lives. It's supposed to help
end drug proliferation, so that's okay. And we already know
how to use our nuke ingredients, but that's no big deal either.
With capitalist techniques that Hitler
actually did use, the Bush administration has managed to control
the debate, disregard dissent, and abandon all rationale. Millions
drive around with America's logo stuck to their rear bumper.
Not knowing that "United We Stand," is simply another
marketing ploy, and the United Nations is completely irrelevant
when it comes to dictating US foreign policy.
War is inevitable I am afraid. We've
been at it in Iraq for over a decade now anyway. The United
Nations weapons team is just a sub-contracted compnay of USA
Inc., so you'll see, we'll set them straight soon enough. But
the mind-boggling thing is--George Bush may be a good CEO after
all. Maybe he learned from his mistakes. A "good CEO,"
you might ask? I guess it just depends on your own definition
of "good."
Josh Frank
is a 24-year-old writer and activist living in Portland, Oregon.
He can be reached at: frank_joshua@hotmail.com
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January
4, 2003
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Something
About Butte
Saul Landau
The Bush Vision and the Culture of Power
Annie Higgins
Six Soldiers
Michael Ortiz
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Bush's Armageddon Obsession
Francisco Armada and Carlos
Mutaner
Venezuela: Chomsky's Tropical Nightmare
James T. Phillips
Targeting Americans
Jack Bice
A Fresh World Vision
Robert Fisk
Double Standards in the War on Terror
Chris Clarke
Is a Blue Rose a Rose?
Frank Fugate
How the West (Bank) Was Won
Anis Shivani
Bleak Prospects for Dems
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Les Miserable and the Hackers from Hell
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
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