Mr. Bush's Curious Kind of Construction

NMB, Florida January 31, 2002 A.H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.

Mr. BUSH'S CURIOUS KIND OF CONSTRUCTION

I have always wondered why people would choose to build and live in what I
consider a dwelling curiously constructed. Some of the choices are, to me,
weird. However, if they are happy with this why should I complain? This is
not quite the same thing as the construction visited upon us by our
President in his State of the Union speech. He built for us a space within a
triangle of terror where we are told we live.

In this speech he remarked widely about terror and set forth a new
construction, for Our Time, a map where our "enemy" lives. The last time
this was done it was a matter of convenience that appeared to the "AXIS"
powers prefiguring World War II because they had a common enemy and were
preparing to divide the world up between them. At that time Germany led in
the West and dragged a reluctant Italy along as a partner. This was a
reversal for the first dictator of note was Mussolini years before Hitler
rose to power. In the East there was Japan and its inroads on the nations
on the Asian continent and the islands off shore. The Japanese sun was to
shine on all it possessed - through conquest. No one, to my knowledge
leaped to join the "Co-Prosperity Sphere" promised by the Japanese warlords.

President Bush named a new AXIS for us. Once again it is a triple
construction that on examination does not show a unity except for
competition with the United States - the new solo giant power in either East
or West. Iraq, Iran and North Korea have been named and possibly correctly.
They do not, however possess the wherewithal that was exploited by a nasty
Nazi state that had the industrial might, thirst for revenge and ethos of
superiority to venture on world conquest. Ditto for the Japanese. Italy,
once again, was dragged along with its trains running miraculously on time.

What do we have in the three nations that constitute a new AXIS reminiscent
of the Central Powers and Totalitarian States of World Wars I and II? We
have, I think, the imponderable presence of Islamic Jihad on one side and
megalomania on the far side. Each is a loose cannon. Iraq has a madman who
uses Israel's might and the Palestinian plight as his raison d'ętre. He
reigns over a sick poor country that sits on a pool of oil. He cannot see
the revenue the people of the world would bring by flocking to see the might
of real empires of the ancient Sumerians and Babylonians if that history has
not been obliterated by mismanagement and pique like the Taliban erasing
Buddhist art and Temples of peaceful worship. Iran, once ancient Persia,
has its Mullahs and the tradition of Islam bloodying the nose of the Great
Satan. It can go on from there to do even worse since it is a sure base
from which terrorists are trained and sent forth to do damage to innocents
abroad. Both countries have put themselves in the position of opposing other
religions in a world that surely needs freedom from dogma and disputes over
who owns the truth.

The real military might of North Korea sits as a brooding bully on the
border of its Capitalist neighbor. A spoiled boy who is heir to a real tiger
who once threatened neighbors with his country's industrial might leads
North Korea. That industrial power in service to military armament has
harnessed its people under militarism - hence it looks abroad for victims.
North Korea is a copycat of the Nazi rise to power and it needs outlets
other than pleasing its own people.

What Mr. Bush did not do was to accurately assess for us the dangers
implicit in parts of the world that are in conflict within their own nations
right now. These can easily escalate into regional wars that soon could
engulf the entire globe once again. India and Pakistan are at each other's
throats although once they were joined in one country albeit in an uneasy
union. The Indonesian parties in decimating their own countrymen are doing
so in the name of nationhood AND religion. Africa, still in the thrall of
colonial relationships and unwilling to enlist those partners once again, is
a continent of unreal countries with real tribal enmities that are acting
out ancient bloodletting rituals as this is being written.

Mr. Bush has it wrong. There is no AXIS. There are sick parts of the
world who look with envy and hate at our success while we are unable to heal
ourselves from outside attack and internal greed. Mr. Bush's war was over
too soon to do him good politically. We have short memories but the rest of
the world cultivates long-term envy and hate and we have been shown our
riches and power do not make us immune
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.