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CounterPunch
November
15, 2002
Disarming Christian
Soldiers
by ANTHONY GANCARSKI
Well, it's like Patriot Day and Homeland Security
Week rolled up into a big pasty ball of freedom. All of W's war
promos over the last few months have amounted to a big tease
apparently, as the chorus line in Baghdad flashes its goodies
yet again for the benefit of UN Inspectors. For a while, at least,
the Neo-Cons can rest easy. Bill Bennett, who recently namedropped
Christopher Hitchens in a positive manner, won't have to talk
on Fox News about three-front wars between slurps of coffee.
Michael Ledeen can write yet another piece for National Review
about how, since Iraq can now be put on the backburner, we need
to invade Iran and bring the Terror War to the Mullahcracy. The
aforementioned Hitchens can let his laptop go idle, the UN inspectors
allowing him to take a break from giving props to Richard Perle
in Slate magazine, as he did just this week.
And won't that Homeland Security bill
be a breeze to get behind now that the Iraqi decision to admit
inspectors has been rendered, conveniently validating the Bush
agenda and its so-called cowboy diplomacy. Peace in our time,
one expects someone to say, as long as he ignores the bombs strafing
the Basra airport every now and then. Peace in our time, one
would say, if he ignored Putin's offer to circumsize those snippy
Chechens, if he ignored the markedly convenient reappearance
of former US intelligence asset Osama bin Laden, or if he weren't
aware of the implications of the Bush "junta" [to borrow
a phrase] declaring Open Season on Evildoers.
There are those who assume that none
of this would have happened if Tom Daschle were still Majority
Leader. These are usually the same cats who blame Ralph Nader
for Gore losing in the finals of some Beauty Contest in 2000,
judged by what conspiracy buffs like Sherman Skolnick and Pat
Buchanan consider an unelected group of dictators in black robes
and the occasional lace teddy underneath.
That black pubic hair on the rim of your
coke can? It's not just for breakfast anymore! 2003 promises
to be a year of officially enforced "unity", and God
help you if you're excluded from the circle of love. Witness
US tele-mullahs Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell getting read
out of polite society, yet again, by Bush as he gave his Islam
Is Luv spiel to a certain Secretary-General just this afternoon.
It's interesting that these pledge drive prophets are touted
as having so much stroke with the Republican establishment, given
how clear it is that they have been mere pawns for the corporate
agenda all along. They are allowed to cheerlead the US transformation
of the Holy Land into the Death Star, but they are higher than
Georgia pines if they expect the Bush team to make any moves
toward implementing their "social agenda."
Those who fret about the imminent end
of reproductive choice can stop worrying, and come to the same
realization Ralph Reed did some months back. The Christian Coalition
and its adjuncts are officially done as a political force in
our culture. They may score a school board seat here and there,
but by and large they are bagged up and waiting by the curb in
white plastic sacks. The infrastructure for US domination of
the Middle East has been laid, and it's not in the interest of
establishment, internationalist Republicans to take stands on
issues that "divide the American people." No overwhelming
mandate has been won solely with a pro-life position, and Bush's
comments today signal that the Republican party is ready to concede
that point, embrace Poppy Bush's pro-choice position of the 1970s,
and jettison, once and for all, the burdensome weight of the
Coalition's cross.
The most interesting ramifications of
the Republicans abandoning their "Christian conservative
base" should play out in the upcoming months. As it becomes
increasingly clear that the Republican party is willing to moderate
its rhetoric, expect folks like Harold Ford to take advantage
of that political cover and abandon the Democrats for the GOP.
Meanwhile, the world waits for Vegas to set odds on Virginia
"maverick" Nancy Spannaus capturing the 2004 Democratic
Presidential nomination.
Anthony Gancarski writes frequently for CounterPunch. Reach him
at Anthony.Gancarski@attbi.com.
Yesterday's
Features
William Hughes
The Mad
World of A.M. Rosenthal
Robert Fisk
War Dance
with Saddam
Ron Lare
Getting 9/11-Baited
War and a Union Election
Russell Mokhiber and
Robert Weissman
Why
Newsweek is Bad for Kids
Jerre Skog
When Big Biz Has Taken Over Everything
The Brave New Nightmare of GATS
Pierre Tristam
Deferral by Default
Lee Sustar
Dockworkers in the Dark
Anis Shivani
"The Doctors' Vote Is Now Up for Grabs"
The Fading Democratic Delusion
Alexander Cockburn
The Anti-War Movement and Its Critics
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- The Shafts of Death: Bush, Coal Mines, and Death
in the Tunnels;
- Speak Memory!: Carter and the Draft;
- Daniel Pipes' World: Smearing Pro-Arab Academics;
- Ashcroft's Gays: the War on Free Speech;
- Saddam's Amnesty: Could It Happen Here?
- Criminalizing Dissent: a history and preview;
- Iraq 1987: When the Going Was Good;
- Egypt in Turmoil: an Anthropologist's Account;
- Green and Grounded: Profiled at the Gate.
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November 10,
2002
Ali Abunimah
Sharon's
Appendix
M. Shahid
Alam
Political Geography
Zionist Theses and Anti-Theses
Michael Neumann
Demonstrating a Genteel Reticence
Rosemary &
Walter Brasch
Personal Possession:
War and Iraq, a Recollection
Ralph Nader
The Mid-term Elections
Mark J. Palmer
Bring Back the Grizzly
Robert Fisk
Bush's "Clean Shot"
Dave Marsh
And the Beat(ing) Goes On
Adam Engel
No Blood for Marijuana in Iraq
Josh Frank
Sleater-Kinney
Rocks
Our Protest Songs Are Here
Clifford Lyle Marshall
Give the Trinity Back to the Salmon
Zeynep Toufe
Turn These Children into Stone
Philip Farruggio
In Name Only
Charles Sullivan
Mountain Party Rising!
Bernard, Krieger, Alam
Poets'Basement
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by Alexander
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and Jeffrey St. Clair
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