Bush looks for buddies in bad times
President George Bush blasted Democrats last week
for "not being interested in the security of the American people." Democrats, it
seems, were not jumping fast enough on Bush's invade-Iraq bandwagon.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat and war veteran,
furiously demanded Bush apologize for this slander. Bush spokesmen claimed the
president was quoted out of context, but the Democrats remained enraged.
Many senior Democrats are decorated war veterans.
Let's see what
all those Republican "chickenhawks" clamouring for war against Iraq did during
America's last major conflict, Vietnam (with thanks to the muckraking New
Hampshire Gazette).
Media neo-cons baying for war against Iraq: William Kristol, Michael Ledeen, Bill O'Reilly, Charles Krauthammer, George Will, Ken Adelman, Chris Mathews, and Rush Limbaugh - no military service during Vietnam.
These men are all around my age. During that time, I enlisted in the U.S. Army. Where were they when so many men were going into battle and to their deaths?
Now, these bellicose crusaders want to send more young Americans into another unnecessary war.
Bush should be ashamed of insulting Democrat war vets like hero Senator Dan Inouye, Al Gore, Richard Gephardt, David Bonior, Tom Daschle, John Kerry and even Teddy Kennedy, who all served their nation in uniform.
Yes, Bill Clinton was a draft dodger, but Bush's war record was not much better. The only senior member of the Bush administration with an honourable military record is Gen. Colin Powell, and he is least in favour of the coming war.
This whole ugly business came right after Bush had turned his fire on Germany's just re-elected Chancellor Gerhard Schroder for refusing to join the anti-Iraq mob.
Hitler comparison
Bush was sizzling mad - and rightly so - after one of Schroder's running mates stupidly compared Bush's tactics over Iraq to Hitler's. But this came after the White House and U.S. ambassador clumsily interfered in Germany's election by openly backing the conservative candidate, Edmund Stoiber, something close allies do not do.
Schroder won an uphill election campaign, largely by refusing to join Bush's jihad against Iraq, a position supported by two-thirds of German voters. Bush furiously accused Schroder of "playing politics" over Iraq.
Lucky for Americans Bush wasn't playing politics over Iraq. With mid-term U.S. elections only five weeks away, no decent person would dare accuse Bush of trying to whip up war fever to distract American voters from the looming U.S. $157 billion deficit he created, collapsing stocks, or serial Wall Street scandals and a possible second recession.
Bush refused to even congratulate Schroder on his victory and had Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accuse the Chancellor of "poisoning" U.S.-German relations. What ever happened to Powell, who is supposed to deal with diplomatic affairs?
The Germans, in the White House view, are not being sufficiently warlike. So what if the Germans had 4.2 million dead in two world wars (America lost 418,000), that's no reason for them to be such Euro-wimps.
Germans and Americans seem to have switched stereotypes: it's now Germans who are peace-loving, while Bush's recently declared America Uber Alles strategy reeks of old, aggressive Teutonic geopolitics.
Delusions of grandeur
Washington has long urged Europe to act like a true partner. But whenever Europeans dare disagree with U.S. policy, they get blasted by the U.S. government and media for insubordination and accused of delusions of grandeur.
In reality, Europe, in the words of master strategist Zib Brzezinski, "remains largely an American protectorate, with its allied states reminiscent of ancient vassal and tributaries." Now, for the first time since WWII, Germany has openly defied Washington, to the delight of most Europeans. Schroder did this to save his political hide, but the effect is still highly significant: a cannon shot that could announce Europe's coming of age. Germany has been forced to accept the role of a paroled criminal ever since 1945. It's now time for Germany, tightly bound to France, and within the framework of the EU, to begin asserting its rights as a sovereign nation that has fully paid its debt for WWII.
Bush calls for democracy around the globe, but his spiteful criticism of Germany is just another example of the occasional anti-democratic tendencies that course through his administration. German voters have spoken. Bush's clumsy efforts to punish Germans for opposing a war seen around the globe as unjust and unnecessary have further inflamed European opinion against his government and damaged America's strategic interests and reputation in Europe.
Eric can be reached by e-mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED].
Letters to the editor should be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit his home page.
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