|
This suggestion is not as far fetched as it may seem. My observation and experience of contemporary American history compels me to recommend it as a serious consideration. We can forgive dirty political tricks, but not the propensity of Republican administrations to wage war at the slightest excuse or at the behest of the Military Industrial Complex, a term coined by none other than America’s most accomplished and credible soldier statesman, President Dwight Eisenhower.
I have concluded that the Republicans simply cannot help it and, what’s more, they are incapable of learning from history. A case in point is John McCain’s continuous insistence that the war in Iraq is being won, life for the Iraqis is getting better, and there should be no withdrawal of forces.
Now, if you were John McCain and you were the GOP candidate running for President, what else could you say? How many Iraqis has he talked to? How many Iraqis outside the Green Zone have stated on television or radio that their lives are getting better? After five years of occupation, how many hours per day of electricity do they have in Baghdad during its scorching summer months? But I digress!
It’s ironic but fitting that John McCain should belong to the GOP. Khoda daro takhtaro baa ham joor mikoneh. GOP stands for “Grand Old Party.” Grand it is not. Old and senile it is. And the Party is over. Last one out please turn out the lights.
For reasons which only it alone understands, the GOP considers itself the self appointed representative of the U.S. military. It doesn’t matter how many times it is proven that in today’s world military force is not enough. Just ask the Israelis about their debacles during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, Lebanon in 1982, Lebanon again in 2006, and the Gaza today. Take away the GOP’s strikingly similar narrow, militaristic outlook, and you are left with a hollow shell which is noisy (as most hollow things are) and morally and intellectually bankrupt. The GOP doesn’t even get that they don’t get it.
With the military, political, and moral debacle in Iraq, where no rule has been left unbroken, the thoroughly discredited GOP is desperate. To win in November, there can be no question that the Republicans will pull out every stop, start other wars, tell more lies, and mislead the voters at every opportunity.
If you don’t believe this, recall how George Bush the Elder won against Michael Dukakis in 1988 mainly by repeatedly having on our TV screens the scariest photo they could find of convicted killer and death row sentenced Willie Horton, reminding us time and again how Dukakis had stayed Horton’s execution. Then in 2000, we had Florida’s dimples and hanging chads, followed in 2004 by the Swift Boaters which sank the candidacy of Vietnam War decorated hero John Kerry.
What about 2008? Can you imagine the Republican hollow political machine will resist the chance to play the race card? Also, I have already started seeing emails from some redneck friends who refer to the Democratic candidate as Barack Hussein Obama. Any day now, we’ll start hearing conveniently timed slips of the tongue where Obama will be called Osama. “By accident.”
Most important of all, will there be a Republican October Surprise in 2008 to derail Obama’s presidential campaign? A top candidate for the Surprise will surely be an attack on Iran under the pretext of ending Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. But enrichment will have little to do with the attack. If the U.S. is really concerned about nuclear weapons in the Middle East, it would first set a credible example by taking away the nukes of the pseudo-democratic nations of Pakistan, India, and Israel. The real purpose of any attack, if it takes place, will be primarily to help the election of John McCain.
Can you imagine where we would be now if, instead of John Kennedy, there had been a Republican President in the White House during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962? What happened to the nations of Laos and Cambodia after Nixon’s massive bombing campaigns? How about Reagan’s successful (kind of) invasion of the tiny Caribbean island of Granada? “A lovely little war” was what one correspondent called the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada. By the time of the 1984 election, the Granada success had replaced the bitter memory of the horrific massacre of 241 Marines, irresponsibly sent to Lebanon without adequate cover or security.
Then it was the turn of George Bush the Elder. In 1989, he invaded Panama, reportedly causing the death of over 3,000 Panamanian civilians who got caught in the cross-fire. The purpose? To oust strongman Manuel Noriega who had become out of favor, was a drug dealer -- and had been a CIA agent for 20 years!
Less than a year later, we had the mysterious invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein. No one has yet explained to us why he went into Kuwait in the first place and what or who made him think he could get away with invading such a vital and oil rich country in the Persian Gulf. What we do know is that the Kuwait and southern Iraq War Theaters became the perfect area for target practice and for testing the latest weapons in the US arsenal. The military was given a free hand by Bush and he let loose in Kuwait his Defense Chief Dick Cheney (!) and former Vietnam vet General “Storming Norman” Schwarzkopf. You almost cannot blame Bush Senior for assuming that massacring tens of thousands of Iraqis would assure him of victory in the 1992 elections. But he forgot the old lessons of American politics (“All politics are local,” and, “It’s the economy, stupid”) and the voters duly punished him.
It appears Bush the Younger didn’t learn the lessons, either, but it will be John McCain and the GOP who will pay the political price next November. That will be a good time for the GOP to disband and be replaced by a new, non-partisan party (perhaps named “NIPOC” -- the National Independent Party Of Citizens) under the leadership of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, who have already demonstrated that a pseudo-Republican and a life-long Democrat CAN make a great team!
|
