MAD COWBOY DISEASE

How did America get to this point? Sure, there have always been those who hated our guts for their own reasons. Now, the feeling is widespread, focused and intense.

Many Americans are also questioning the Bushites mad dash to war. Another senior U.S. diplomat resigned Monday from the Foreign Service in protest of U.S. policies in Iraq, the second such resignation in less than a month.

"I cannot in good conscience support President Bush's war plans against Iraq," wrote Foreign Service Officer John H. Brown in a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell that also was sent to reporters. The United States is becoming associated around the world "with the unjustified use of force," wrote Brown, who earned a Ph.D. from Princeton and joined the Foreign Service in 1981. "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," he wrote.

If the Bushites had conspired to isolate this country from the rest of the world they could not have done a better job by pursuing their idiotic war policy. And there is some indication that that is their purpose.

If the Bushites had sought to turn Americans against each other, they have succeeded. Patriotism is now defined as following government policy blindly and helplessly as one does with a dictatorship.

But those who know the history of democracy are unwilling to desert the values that were taught in school and have defined their lives. In opposition to them are those willing and eager to pound the hell out of anyone the Bushites point to and call EVIL.

Indian writer Amitav Ghosh tells us that countries have soft power and hard power. It is the judicious use of soft power (good will, treaties, cooperative ventures) that makes hard power (bribery, war) unnecessary. http://www.amitavghosh.com/

We have seen how the Bushites eschewed the use of soft power when they took over the White House by abrogating treaties. And more recently how they castigated France for not falling in line with their plans to invade Iraq. How could we have allowed ourselves to be led in such a wrong direction? We like to think of our country as a protector of small nations, not a despoiler or conqueror -- a gentle giant that once treated its vanquished to the Marshall Plan, sending aid and comfort to nations and peoples in need.

While idealizing its virtues, many Americans are proud of being a muscle country. We believe we are a strong partner, a trustworthy friend and a good neighbor. Any persuasion that might be used in foreign relations would be open and above board. Now we find we are using blackmail, lies and bribes.

The Bushites are using the same strong-arm, belligerent tactics here at home as they are doing abroad. They prepare to ban late term abortions and despoil the Alaskan wilderness while ignoring a plunging economy and giving tax cuts to the rich.

All women are getting from the Bushite's infectious, mad cowboy disease are lies and bible verses proclaiming Christian values. While in actual fact, the promises are hollow, the values ignored and the platitudes false.

Despite 9/11, Americans have little idea of what war is like compared to countries that have been overrun with wars. Perhaps we need to visualize war scenes in order to appreciate why so many people in other countries are against the Bushite's Iraqi war. Check this URL and wear the black ribbon. http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/black_ribbon/brc.html

This week we saw the Bushite military's prideful demonstration of an even bigger and more destructive bomb. MOAB -- "Mother Of All Bombs", able to strew death and mayhem to a much greater degree than any other non-atomic bomb in the world.

All that was lacking in that bomb demonstration was the ever compassionate, Dr. Strangelove-mad-cowboy-in-chief riding it down.

twanda@sover.net

2003-011

Copyright 2003 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@sover.net.