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May
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May
5, 2003
George W. Bush
The Little Snot, the Little Bully
by SAM HAMOD
I was talking with a friend the other day and
she said, "Bush runs around like a little bully, like a
little snot." I thought, bingo! That's what he is, a little
snot, a little bully.
Remember the kids who whined, were spoiled,
and wanted their way, and were nasty to you and everyone else
if they didn't get it? Remember the shrubs you knew who had thugs
for friends who would come after you, but the little bully wouldn't
dare do it by himself--but always wanted others to do his dirty
work for him. Well, there you have our dear president, GW Shrub.
Interestingly, Norman Mailer recently
wrote that the war in Iraq may have also been about the white
male ego needing to assert itself. This may be so, for in GW
Shrub's case, he has always been a failure; he failed in school,
he failed in baseball, he failed in the oil business, he has
failed as a father if you look at his two young lost daughters,
he actually failed as Governor of Texas but kept the financial
and education mess he made covered up until after the presidential
election; ironically, he failed to get the majority of votes
when he ran for president against Al Gore (but he won with the
help of his brother Jeb, Gov. of Florida and the infamous hanging
chads, and the US Supreme Court that was loaded with right wing
Republicans left over from Ronald RayGun).
Poor GW Shrub had to win at something-so
he did, he beat another bully, Saddam Hussein-but a lot of American,
Iraqi and British lives were lost in the process and more will
die in the future before the Iraq mess is finished (and believe
me, it is a long way from over). So, perhaps Mailer is right,
poor Shrub had to assert his "manhood"-or what he little
he has. He certainly doesn't behave like a mature, intelligent
or just man-he behaves more like the little snot, the little
bully I alluded to. Read on for the adventures of GW Shrub versus
Mexico, France, Germany, Russia and the US Congress.
Look at the way he has decided to snub
Mexico on Cinco De Mayo Day this year-this is all the rage on
the Mexican and American talk radio stations out here in San
Diego, it even made a headline in the second A section of the
San Diego Union Tribune. All this because Presidente Fox of Mexico
did not support him in his illegal and immoral attack on Iraq.
Remember back when GW became president, then it was, "Me
Amigo, Presidente Fox, border friends, like brothers, we understand
each other and we're going to work to make those border crossings
easier and make it easier to get more Mexican workers into America
and give them their citizenship."
Well, as you know, when 9/11 came along,
GW became larger than life, at least in his own eyes and in the
eyes of the American toadish media. He suddenly started to "worry
about those Mexican illegals coming across the border, they could
be terrorists." Fox kept his part of the friendship, but
Bush began pulling away from it. Bush kept it at a very cold
distance, until he wanted Fox's help at the UN, wanted his support
for a war resolution against Iraq. When Fox didn't come through
for the little bully, a faux Napoleon, Bush decided he'd take
revenge. He cut back on immigration, he made border crossings
harder, he sent money into Mexico to help defeat Fox and his
party and started publicly attacking Fox for not being a good
neighbor. Now that Cinco De Mayo, one of the major Mexican holidays,
is coming up, Bush is going to use the occasion to snub Presidente
Fox. The little snot will show him who is boss; he'll let Fox
know that he's not only a little snot, but that he's a little
bully.
Of course, you are aware that the Shrub
has been playing out the same scenario toward France, Germany,
Russia and China-but especially toward France and Germany. He's
made clear he's going to "punish them" for not supporting
his illegality in Iraq.
But, as soon as he had a ground victory
in Iraq, GW Shrub went to the UN to ask them to give him help
in "reconstructing Iraq" and "helping to restore
order"-but of course, it all had to be done under the aegis
of American control, with American corporations raping the profits
out of Iraq-all that France, Germany, Russia and others would
get to do was to support this rape, the pillage, give money and
men to help, then shut up and stay out of the way.
Even when France tried to compromise
with GW at the UN 10 days ago, it did no good-he made clear he
was still "going to punish France, teach them a lesson."
Sound like that little snot, that little bully you remember from
your childhood, or saw in your classroom if you are an elementary
school teacher or principal? Of course you do-we all do-the only
terrible thing is that this little monster is the president of
the most powerful country in the world (no, he didn't make it
powerful, it was powerful before he came into office) and can
damn near get away with whatever he wants because he controls
the Congress, the Senate and the Supreme Court as well as having
the world's largest budget and military at his beck and call!
Intelligent Americans are aware of these
poor qualities in Bush by the way he has run roughshod over American
civil rights through his minion/thug, Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Ashcroft has made declarations about the law as head of the Department
of Justice that most legal scholars say are clearly illegal and
wrong. He then carries out illegal and immoral detentions of
innocent people without warrants, disallows them legal counsel
and refuses them visits; this has been true of the prisoners
in Guantanmo, Cuba and in the US itself where even US citizens
have been "detained" in this same illegal way (see
Padilla and others). But few in the Congress and in the law are
willing to stand up to Ashcroft.
Even legislators fear Bush; they give
him whatever he wants, that is aside from Senator Byrd, Congressman
Kucinich and the Black Caucus. When Bush wanted his Patriot Act
passed, most of the congress just lay down before him and let
him run over them. Seeing this, the bully decided to take more
action, so he sent his minions to the Hill and pushed for more
and more of his way--in the budget, in Homeland Security, in
economic and political attacks on his alleged "enemies"
in the congress, so that now he has his minions in control of
the most important roles in Congress.
He has even intimidated the media so
they are afraid to be critical of Bush or his ways. Thus, during
the recent illegal invasion of Iraq, most of the US media did
little critical questioning or thinking--they just waved the
flags the way the Bush team waved them, and all were happy in
their ignorant bliss. On TV and radio, anyone who didn't agree
with the Bush line was attacked from the show, or if they appered
on the shows. Thus, even the 4th Estate was bullied so that now
they are part of the first three estates, Money, Politics and
Military--most can no longer lay claim to being "independent
media." One has but to look at Faux News, MSNBC, Brokaw's
posturing on NBC, even Mike Wallace on CBS and the rationalizing
on behalf of Bush by the previously independent CNN.
When foreign media criticized Bush or
gave differing versions from his, their sites were hacked, their
transmissions often interrupted and all were attacked on a daily
basis by the Bush administration as being liars, anti-peace,
anti-justice and worst of all, "anti-American." In
Afghanistan, one of the media most critical of Bush, Al Jazeera
television, was attacked and their headquarters destroyed even
though they had been promised safety by the Shrub's men. In Iraq,
Al Jazeera's headquarters were bombed with two of their people
being killed; then to top it off, when it was apparent that many
of the independent, not the embedded journalists, were showing
and writing about the brutality of the American and British troops
in Baghdad, an American tank fired a direct hit into the Palestine
Hotel which also killed and wounded more journalists. At first,
General Brooks, the spokesman for the US in the Iraq fiasco,
tried to say that shots had been fired from the lobby of the
hotel and that's why the tank shot into the hotel. But when he
was corrected, that the tank shot at the 15th floor, Brooks stumbled
and mumbled, but never apologized for the killings at either
the Palestine Hotel or at Al Jazeera, Bush's man at the Pentagon,
Rumdum only said, "It's war and things happen." Once
again, no apology; thus, the bully affect again.
So how do we handle the snot and bully?
I say we stand up to him, not just in America, but others in
the world should do the same. Start making defense treaties,
start making trade treaties, start shutting him and his kind
out so that they lose their bearings-so that they realize the
world can go on without him and his thugs. Let his lackey, Tony
Blair, realize that he won't be part of the European Union much
longer if he continues to be more a part of Bush's team (no,
not of America, hopefully America is larger than Bush) than an
EU member. Then, if the bully begins to think he can start another
war in the Middle East, in Asia, in Africa, the nations of that
area should stand shoulder to shoulder and say, NO! Don't you
dare come in here and start another mess like you created in
Iraq. If you come, you may kill some of us, but you can't take
us all on, and even if you bomb us into some sort of hell, you
still won't be able to occupy us because we'll fight harder than
Saddam Hussein, and we won't be bought or scared off by your
money or your arrogant rhetoric.
Remember, this shrub is nothing but a
little snot, a little bully-he is not America, he's a not a shrub
interested in democracy, and he is not for peace or justice.
Sam Hamod
is an expert in world affairs. He publishes articles on the Middle
East, politics, economics and poetry. he may be reached at shamod@cox.net.
Yesterday's
Features
Saul Landau
The Cuba Conundrum
Neve
Gordon
US: No Right to Know About the Disappeared
John
Chuckman
Tom Friedman's Life as a Pet Hamster
Bradley
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Harvey
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Bush's Military Defeat
John
Troyer
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Caoimhe
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Crowd Control American-style
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/02
Website
of the Day
Moussaoui's
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