-Caveat Lector-
~~for educational purposes only~~
[Title 17 U.S.C. section 107]
Abraham Dubya Bush
by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
As has been their tradition for decades now, neocons
who are in favor of waging total war against
somebody (this time it's Iraq) have been invoking the
sainted Lincoln ("Father Abraham," as the war
enthusiasts at the Claremont Institute call him) as their
role model. After all, there must be some kind of
ideological cover for mass murder (as all wars are),
and that is the role of the Lincoln Myth.
As Joseph Stromberg recently noted ("Bring on the
Honors List!", LRC, Aug. 28), George Will has
written in the Washington Post that President Bush
should look to Lincoln's war tactics as a model for
"American ways of waging war." In recent months
historian Jay Winik has written in the Wall Street
Journal that, in the spirit of Lincoln, "security" should
come before liberty. To hell with civil liberties. Tony
Blankley repeated this same anti-civil liberties theme
in the Washington Times; and David Broder and
Ronald Radosh, among many others, have explicitly
invoked Lincoln in advocating that we send a quarter
of a million men to invade Iraq (for starters). A recent
article posted on the Neo-conservative website
FreeRepublic described President Bush's developing
foreign policy as "Lincolnesque but on a world-wide
scale."
What, exactly, should President Bush do in order to
mimic Lincoln's war policies, as the neocons are
urging him to do? Well, the first thing he should do (as
Lincoln did) is to unilaterally suspend the writ of
Habeas Corpus and order the military to begin
arresting and imprisoning all dissenters, especially the
press. He should issue an order to one of his top
generals similar to the one Lincoln issued to General
John Dix on May 18, 1864: "You will take possession
by military force, of the printing establishments of the
New York World and Journal of Commerce . . . and
prohibit any further publication thereof. . . you are
therefore commanded forthwith to arrest and imprison
. . . the editors, proprietors and publishers of
aforesaid newspapers."
Imagine the cheering at the Claremont Institute if
President Bush were to put the New York Times and
Washington Post out of business and throw their
editors and owners into military prisons without
issuing any warrants, making any charges, or even
telling their families where they were. Father
Abraham lives! Just to make sure all other members of
the press get the message, President Bush should also
follow the practice of President Lincoln, the founder
of his party, and have federal troops physically
demolish the printing presses of opposition
newspapers (see Dean Sprague, Freedom Under
Lincoln, and James G. Randall, Constitutional
Problems Under Lincoln).
In order to assure "congressional support" for his war,
President Bush should also order federal troops to
interfere with elections in predominantly Democratic
districts, as Lincoln did. In Maryland, for example,
Lincoln ordered the arrest and imprisonment of
several dozen state legislators, Congressman Henry
May, and the mayor of Baltimore. He won New York
State in the 1864 presidential election, writes Pulitzer
Prize-winning Lincoln biographer David Donald,
"with the help of federal bayonets." President Bush
might also consider re-instituting the draft, and
instructing the draft board to conscript primarily young
registered Democrats.
Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota is the current
leader of the opposition, and he has been dutifully
performing his proper role by criticizing the Bush
administration every chance he gets, even on the topic
of starting a war in the Middle East. If President Bush
really wants to be considered to be "Lincolnesque" he
would have 60 or 70 heavily armed Marines break
down the door to Senator Daschle's home in the
middle of the night, throw him into military prison
without charging him with any crime, and eventually
deporting him.
That's exactly what happened to the most outspoken
member of the Democratic Party in Lincoln's day,
Ohio Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham.
Congressman Vallandigham had protested vehemently
on the floor of the House of Representatives against
Lincoln's suspension of Habeas Corpus and his
trashing of much of the rest of the Constitution. He was
also a vociferous opponent of Lincoln's high-tariff
policy and his adoption of an income tax. He favored
seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict; Lincoln
did not, so Vallandigham was deported.
There were a great many prominent Northerners like
Vallandigham who preferred peace and compromise
over what became the bloodiest war in all of
American history. Lincoln's political strategy, carried
out by the propaganda arm of the Republican Party
known as the "Union League," was to spread the lie
that all of these men were traitors and Confederate
sympathizers. They were denigrated as
"Copperheads," a form of snake in the grass. To make
this point Vallandigham was ceremoniously escorted
across the lines and handed over to a Confederate
commander. The Confederates, however, wanted
nothing to do with Vallandigham, nor he with them, so
he fled to Canada.
So again, if President Bush wants to pursue a
Lincolnesque war policy, he should immediately
deport Senator Daschle to Iraq. That will send a
strong message to any other dissenters, just as
Lincoln's deportation of Congressman Vallandigham
did. (Even though he was in Canada, the Ohio
Democratic Party still made Vallandigham its
gubernatorial nominee).
War is always unpredictable, regardless of the
best-laid war plans. If the U.S. military does
invade Iraq, it may well suffer some setbacks,
for example, if Iraq uses chemical or biological
weapons, or if other Arab states decide to enter
the war on Iraq's side. To be truly Lincolnesque,
President Bush would then decide that the war must
be waged on Iraq's citizens (including women and
children) as well as combatants, just like Lincoln's
generals did during the War between the States, and
just as the same generals later did in the war against
the Plains Indians. As General Sherman once said,
"To secessionists, why, death is mercy." He meant all
"secessionists," women and children included, as he
explained in a letter to his wife. After all, Total War
has been an American tradition since 1861.
This is just a short list of what President Bush must do
if he wants to go down in history as Abraham Dubya
Bush and carry on the tradition of The Party of
Lincoln.
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