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CounterPunch
March 11,
2003
When Even Poppy Says
Go Slow
George, You're
in Trouble, Big Trouble
By WAYNE MADSEN
George W. Bush, the rancher from Crawford, Texas,
has finally done it. He has Daddy Bush mad at him. In a recent
speech at Tufts University, the elder Bush warned his son against
a unilateral war against Iraq. Bush 41 must also have been on
the receiving end of some heated phone calls from world leaders
tired of the pomposity and bellicosity of the Junior Bush. Bush
Pere called for the United States to mend fences with allies
such as France and Germany. Junior Bush's messianic call to arms
has upset the world economy, rendered 40 year military and economic
alliances practically meaningless, soured world public opinion
against the United States, triggered political crises in the
Britain and Spain, and caused serious rifts within the U.S. and
British military and intelligence structures. The intelligence
revolt is so serious, a Top Secret National Security Agency tasking
memo was featured in Britain's The Observer newspaper thanks
to high-level authorized leaks.
Although Daddy Bush was not the best
presidential actor available from central casting, he did bring
to the table a long history of involvement with both diplomacy
and intelligence. He was a U.S. ambassador to both the UN and
China and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  Both the UN and the CIA are steaming
mad at Junior Bush. Trying to stampede the UN into submission
after bragging that there were more "Get the US out of the
UN and the UN out of the US" signs in Midland than there
were "God Bless America" signs has ruined his cause
on the banks of the East River. Similarly, at Langley, Virginia,
seasoned intelligence agents are under pressure to cook the books
and come up with smoking guns in Iraq that just do not exist.
Nevertheless, the war hawks in the Pentagon,
the National Security Council, State Department, and American
Enterprise Institute continue to call for total war. They talk
openly of going after Iran, North Korea, Syria, Lebanon, Libya,
and Cuba after Iraq is conquered. Hearkening back to the Joe
McCarthy days, they brand their opponents as terrorists, as did
the repulsive and repugnant ursine creature Richard Perle to
New Yorker journalist Sy Hersh on CNN.
The world has had enough of Junior Bush
and his gang of xenophobes, racists, anti-Arabs, anti-Muslims,
fundamentalist Bible-thumpers, crooked defense contractors and
oil moguls, Moonies, right-wing ideologues, and quislings like
Tony Blair. Junior Bush's "coalition of the willing"
is more like a "coalition of the chilling."
But Daddy Bush's comments interestingly
echo those of Brent Scowcroft, Norman Schwarzkopf, Anthony Zinni,
and other former luminaries in past GOP administrations. Junior
Bush's so-called press conference last week, in which he snottily
decided to ignore the doyenne of the White House Press Corps,
Helen Thomas, demonstrated that the Resident-in-Chief is under
some sort of medication. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd
suggested it was Xanax, others, aware of reports that Junior
suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder, opined that he was on
Ritalin. Some recovering alcoholics believe Junior fits the bill
of a "dry drunk."
Whatever the case, the world is now coming
to the conclusion that the real threat t world peace is not in
Baghdad, Pyongyang, Teheran, Ramallah, or Tripoli, but right
in Washington, DC. No nation or dictator can be expected top
remain calm when the President of the United States lumps them
into an "Axis of Evil" and calls the North Korean leader
a "pygmy." Even that term is pejorative, the Twa people
of Africa, once known as "pygmies," reject that term
as racist. And speaking of that, this reporter was just a little
concerned when it was discovered that "intelligence"
documents previously cited by the Bush administration were frauds.
The case involved Iraq's supposedly obtaining uranium from the
West African nation of Niger. Now considering Junior's previous
problems with pronouncing foreign names, I can understand why
Ari Fleischer banned that question from last week's news conference.
Considering the fact that Daddy Bush
is still on good terms with many European and other leaders,
it is apparent that he must be verbally spanking his ill-tempered
boy. It must be kind of sad for the elder Bush to see his son
going down in history as a very negative footnote. After all,
John Quincy Adams had a fairly successful administration. So
what's wrong with Junior?
It could be that he is mentally incapable
of carrying out his duties. In such case, the 25th Amendment
is very clear on a course of action. But Junior's problems actually
lie with his closest aids, those who manipulate him to carry
out their sordid agendas. And for this, the regime in Washington
has started a fire that is spreading rapidly through the corridors
of power in Washington, state capitals, foreign capitals, intelligence
headquarters, corporate board rooms, royal palaces, and even
into the sanctified halls of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
The protests and resignations that started
out with a trickle are developing into a deluge. Only the U.S.
corporate controlled media, which is anchored on such Jingos
as Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Wolf Blitzer, Evan Thomas, Charles
Krauthammer, Sean Hannity, William Kristol, Fred Barnes, Don
Imus, Michael Savage and their pathetic and much too numerous
clones, is missing the point.
Here is how this reaction against Junior
Bush began. On February 27, John Brady Kiesling, a 20-year career
Foreign Service Officer and the Political Officer at the U.S.
Embassy in Greece, tendered his resignation in protest over Bush's
war plans. In his letter of resignation he stated, "we have
begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international
relationships the world has ever known." Brady was joined
by career diplomat John H. Brown on March 10. In his letter of
resignation, Brown, who represented the United States throughout
Eastern Europe , stated, ""Throughout the globe the
United States is becoming associated with the unjustified use
of force. The president's disregard for views in other nations,
borne out by his neglect of public diplomacy, is giving birth
to an anti-American century." Bravo Mr. Brown! Brown and
Kiesling represent the best of the State Department. Powell and
his pro-Likud Party ciphers, John Bolton and David Wurmser, represent
the worst.
Last week, a group of disgruntled British
intelligence officials leaked a Top Secret/COMINT National Security
Agency memorandum calling on Britain's intelligence services
to help America listen in on the private communications of UN
Security Council members and other UN members not on the council.
It was the most dramatic release of classified information due
to an internal policy dispute since the Pentagon Papers were
released by Daniel Ellsberg in 1971. Although one 28-year old
employee of Britain's Government Communications Headquarters
(GCHQ) was arrested, police were looking to arrest others. It
would seem that the dissention within the British government
reached far higher than the spy agency nestled in the Cotswolds.
International Development Secretary Clare
Short threatened to resign over Britain's support for Bush. She
called Blair's policy "reckless." There were rumors
that former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was going to quit Blair's
Cabinet. A Labor Party Member of Parliament quit as permanent
private secretary for Blair's Environment Minister. Former Labor
Defense Minister Peter Kilfoyle joined in the attack on Blair.
The longest-serving MP, Tony Dalyell, a Laborite, called on Blair
to resign. (Something can be said for longest-serving parliamentarians,
our own venerable and longest-serving Senator Robert Byrd has
accused Junior Bush of acting like a Roman Emperor). The British
revolt even spread to the Conservative Party where John Randall
quit as his party's whip over British support for Bush's Iraq
adventure. A wave of other resignations are expected. Labor Party
activists are vowing to "de-select" Members of Parliament
who voted for Blair's war. The effort may ultimately sink the
war hawk administration of Blair, his Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw, and Blair brain trust Peter Mandelson.
But it is not just Blair who faces an
internal revolt. After Kiesling's resignation from the State
Department came a blast from within the ranks of the GOP. Jack
Walters, the GOP Chairman in Boone County, Missouri, resigned
over Bush's war plans. Walters' letter made some cogent points
and posed some agonizing questions: "The consequences of
our planned attack on Iraq (and also probably Iran, given the
size of our forces and their location in proximity to Iran),
should cause us all to pause. The Pentagon has announced that
we will hit Baghdad with a force almost equal to the bombing
of Hiroshima. Obviously many thousands of civilians will perish,
with untold thousands maimed. And for what? To liberate them?
To bring them freedom? Or democracy? Or is it to really secure
the world's second largest oil reserve and establish a base from
which to subjugate other Middle Eastern nations? Is it also the
plan for Israel to use the cover of war to forcibly relocate
the Palestinian population (as has been publicly stated by some
members of Israel's current government)?"
The worst news for Bush is that Walters
is a pro-life Republican from an important swing state. He is
not the type of anti-war individual portrayed by Bush's lockstep
supporters. Walters states "I only sought the position of
Chairman originally in the hope that I could recruit God-fearing,
thinking, pro-life believers in our Constitution to stand for
office." Not the rantings of a liberal by any stretch.
Grass roots movements have succeeded
in passing anti-war resolutions in over 120 state legislatures
and city councils around America. College student governments
are joining in. From Syracuse, New York to Dayton, Ohio, to Baltimore
to Olympia, Washington, grass roots organizations have worked
with local politicians to enact the resolutions. Junior, or at
least his Svengali, Karl Rove, must realize that politics is
local as are presidential election polling places.
So Junior Bush has a dilemma. Daddy's
irritated at him. France and Russia are preparing to veto his
resolution. His pals Tony Blair and Spain's Jose Maria Aznar
are facing domestic political revolts. Junior snubs Sinn Fein
leader Gerry Adams, accusing him of complicity with terrorists
in Colombia, this after his immigration storm troopers roughly
detained former MP Bernadette Devlin and deported her back to
Ireland after accusing her of being a terrorist. Count the Ireland
peace initiative in big trouble. Ditto the Palestinian-Israeli
accords. Bush is linked by the navel to Ariel Sharon. Yassir
Arafat is also on the terrorist list once again. Nelson Mandela,
after saying Bush "cannot think properly," is on Junior's
baddie list. And the Pope, well Bush got "frank" with
his special envoy, which probably means he threw some sort of
delusional fit.
America's closest neighbors, Canada and
Mexico, feel the U.S. is a hostile nation. For the first time
in history, the United States is the source of refugees--immigrants
seeking refuge and safety from the Homeland Security storm troopers
of the Bush regime.
Junior, let's face it, you have done
more damage to the world and your country in two years than most
tyrants have accomplished in decades. Your Dad now even believes
you are way off base. Your predecessors Jimmy Carter and Bill
Clinton think you are an embarrassment. Your Dad's best friends
and colleagues think your Iraq adventure is ill-timed and ill-conceived.
You need to either dump that aforementioned
band of lunatics you stuck into your administration and who are
steering you into political oblivion or you should let Laura
and Daddy sign the papers and let the 25th Amendment take its
course.
Wayne Madsen
is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and columnist.
He wrote the introduction to Forbidden
Truth.
Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
Yesterday's
Features
Bill and Kathleen Christison
On
the Road to Iraq: First Stop Amman
Uri Avnery
An Approaching Emergency
Ray Close
A CIA
Analyst on Forging Intelligence
Michael Neumann
An
Unfounded Rush to Cynicism: a Rebuttal of Perry Anderson
Gary Leupp
Bush's
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Kurt Nimmo
Perle's Slurs: Smearing Sy Hersh
Terry Jones
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CounterPunch Wire
Vietnam 2 Pre-Flight Check
Alexander Cockburn
What Will the US Find If It Invades Iraq?
Robert Fisk
Blix
Undermines Bush War Plan
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