Re: Theos-World Re: What Is Happening In America?
Jul 11, 2003 10:41 AM
by Bart Lidofsky
leonmaurer@aol.com wrote:
What Is Happening In America? By Eliot Weinberger
Translation by Bart Lidofsky
This article, one of the best short analyses of the Bush
administration's policies, was first published by "Vorwarts," Germany
Translation: He published it in a country that is working very hard to
undermine America's influence.
exceptions have been Thatcher and Reagan, but even their programs of
dismantling systems of social welfare seem, in retrospect, mild
compared to what is happening in the United States under George
Bush-- or more exactly, the ruling junta that tells Bush what to do
and say.
Translation: I don't like the results of the last election.
It is unquestionably the most radical government in modern American
history, one whose ideology and actions have become so pervasive, and
are so unquestionably mirrored by the mass media here, that the
population seems to have forgotten what "normal" is.
Translation: I don't agree with his policies.
Church and State George Bush is the first unelected President of the
United States, installed by a right-wing Supreme Court in a kind of
judicial coup d'etat.
Translation: I am so far to the left that I even consider the three
liberal members of the Supreme Court to be right wing (all the
conservatives, all the moderates, and one of the liberals voted in
Bush's favor). Also, I disagree with the founding fathers, and believe
that the electoral college should not be valid.
He is the first to actively subvert one of the pillars of American
democracy: the separation of church and state. There are now daily
prayer meetings and Bible study groups in every branch of the
government, and religious organizations are being given funds to take
over educational and welfare programs that have always been the
domain of the state.
Translation: I love to tell half-truths and out-and-out lies if it fits
my agenda.
Bush is the first president to invoke the specific "Jesus Christ"
rather than an ecumenical "God," and he has surrounded himself with
evangelical Christians, including his Attorney General, who attends a
church where he talks in tongues.
Translation: I disagree with the U.S. Constitution, and believe there
SHOULD be a religious test for serving public office. Just make sure
it's MY version of religion.
It is the first administration to openly declare a policy of
unilateral aggression, a "Pax Americana" where the presence of allies
(whether England or Bulgaria) is agreeable but unimportant; where
international treaties no longer apply to the United States; and
where-- for the first time in history-- this country reserves the
right to non-defensive, "pre-emptive" strikes against any nation on
earth, for whatever reason it declares.
Translation: Paramilitary attacks against the United States don't count.
Race Laws
It is the first-- since the internment of Japanese-Americans in World
War II-- to enact special laws for a specific ethnic group.
Non-citizen young Muslim men are now required to register and subject
themselves to interrogation.
Translation: How DARE the United States do what ANY other country would
do in the same position, and scrutinize non-citizen members of countries
or alliances that have declared war against it.
Many hundreds have been arrested and held without
trial or access to legal assistance-- a violation of another pillar
of American democracy: habeas corpus.
Translation: Oops! Forgot to mention that these are non-citizens, and
that the right of habeus corpus has NEVER existed in ANY country in the
world for non-citizens. And I didn't mention that the people were
allowed to have legal assistance if they wanted it. After all, we can't
let those uncomfortable truths interfere with my case.
Many have been taken from their
families and deported on minor technical immigration violations; the
whereabouts of many others are still unknown. And, in Guantanamo Bay,
where it is said that they are now preparing execution chambers,
hundreds of foreign nationals -- including a 13-year-old and a man
who claims to be 100-- have been kept for almost two years in a limbo
that clearly contravenes the Geneva Convention.
Translation: in spite of the fact that these were non-uniformed members
of an army that declared war against the United States, and, as such,
are being treated according to the Geneva Convention rules for such
forces, I think they should be treated according to the rules for
uniformed sources. And I am reporting rumor (the 13 year old) as fact.
And I am mixing those who are being executed with those who are being
held until they can find a non-belligerent country that will patriate
them and all those in between as if they ALL were going to be executed.
Similar to the Reagan era, it is an administration openly devoted to
helping the rich and ignoring the poor, one that has turned the
surplus of the Clinton years into a massive deficit through its
combination of enormous tax cuts for the wealthy (particularly those
who earn more than a million dollars a year) and increases in defense
spending.
Translation: I am ignoring the fact that Clinton favored the rich just
as much, and that a war against the United States, which Clinton allowed
to go on unchallenged, was escalated. I am also ignoring the effects of
the dotcom crash, an event of which the Clinton administration carefully
hid the early signs, while overstating the health of the U.S. economy by
a third during the Presidential election.
(And, although Republicans always campaign on "less government," it
has created the largest new government bureaucracy in history: the
Department of Homeland Security.) The Financial Times of England,
hardly a hotbed of leftists, has categorized this economic policy as
"the lunatics taking over the asylum."
Translation: I am ignoring the fact that there is a war going on.
Undermining Law
But more than Reagan-- whose policies tended to benefit the rich in
general-- most of Bush's legislation specifically enriches those in
his lifelong inner circle from the oil, mining, logging, construction,
and pharmaceutical industries.
Translation: I am crossing out Clinton's name and putting Bush n it's
place.
At the middle level of the bureaucracy, where laws may be issued
without Congressional approval, hundreds of regulations have been
changed to lower standards of pollution or safety in the workplace, to
open up wilderness areas for exploitation, or to eliminate the testing
of drugs..
Translation: I don't know the difference between a law and a
regulation. Or I do, but I'm purposely trying to confuse people who
don't. And I also like to confuse labels with that which is labeled.
Corporate Kickbacks Billions in government contracts have been
awarded, without competition, to corporations formerly run by
administration officials.
Translation: I don't know what a kickback is, and I am not considering
whether or not the contracts were valid.
Undermining Law - II
In a country where the most significant social changes are enacted by
court rulings, rather than by legislation, the Bush administration
has been filling every level of the complex judicial system with
ultra-right ideologues, especially those who have protected
corporations from lawsuits by individuals or environmental groups,
and those who are opposed to women's reproductive rights. It remains
to be seen how far they can push their antipathy to contraception and
abortion.
Translation: I think Bush should put judges who disagree with him on
the bench.
They have already banned a rare form of late-term abortion that is
only given when the health of the mother is endangered or the fetus
is terribly deformed, and a large portion of Bush's heralded billions
to Africa to fight AIDS will be devoted to so-called "abstinence"
education.
Translation: I'm ignoring the fact that it only stops ELECTIVE
late-term abortions; medically necessary abortions are STILL allowed.
And how DARE Bush try to push the most effective way of stopping AIDS!!!!
Totalitarian America
Most of all, America doesn't feel like America any more. The climate
of militarism and fear, similar to any totalitarian state,
Translation: Any government I disagree with is totalitarian.
permeates everything. Bush is the first American president in memory
to swagger around in a military uniform, though he himself-- like all
of his most militant advisers-- evaded the Vietnam War.
Translation: I am lying. Bush war a military outfit, but it was NOT a
uniform; there was no sign of rank on it. The military outfit was the
only kind manufactured for the purpose. In addition, I consider serving
in the armed forces outside of Vietnam the same thing as running off to
England.
(Even Eisenhower, a general and a war hero, never wore his uniform
while he was president).
Translation: I am inserting an irrelevant historical point.
In the airports of provincial cities, there are frequent
announcements in that assuring, disembodied voice of science-fiction
films:
"The Department of Homeland Security advises that the Terror Alert is
now. . . Code Orange." Every few weeks there is an announcement that
another terrorist attack is imminent, and citizens are urged to take
ludicrous measures, like sealing their windows against biological and
chemical attacks, and to report the "suspicious" activities of their
neighbors.
Translation: I'm telling half-truths again. Not to mention out and out
lies.
The Pentagon institutes the "Total Information Awareness" program to
collect data on the ordinary activities of ordinary citizens (credit
card charges, library book withdrawals, university course enrollments)
and when this is perceived as going too far, they change the name to
"Terrorist Information Awareness" and continue to do the same things.
Translation: The Pentagon is doing what the Pentagon has ALWAYS done.
Millions are listed in airport security computers as potential
terrorists, including antiwar demonstrators and pacifists. Critics are
warned to "watch what they say" and lists of "traitors" are posted on
the internet.
Translation: Bush is doing what people, especially on the left, have
been complaining he didn't do before 9/11. In addition, people are
posting bullshit on the Internet. Not unlike my article.
The war in Iraq has been the most extreme manifestation of this new
America, and almost a casebook study in totalitarian techniques;
First, an Enemy is created by blatant lies that are endlessly
repeated until the population believes it: in this case, that Iraq
was linked to the attack on the World Trade Center, and that it
possesses vast "weapons of mass destruction" that threaten the world.
Translation: I am concentrating on a single issue, which the entire
world believed BEFORE it was brought up by the United States (the
disagreement was not on whether the weapons existed, but how to best
divest Iraq of them), and ignoring all the other issues brought up,
including Saddam Hussein's own statements.
Then, a War of Liberation, entirely portrayed by the mass media in
terms of our Heroic Troops, with little or no imagery of casualties
and devastation, and with morale-inspiring, scripted "news"
scenes--such as the toppling of the Saddam statue and the heroic
"rescue" of Private Lynch-- worthy of Soviet cinema.
Translation: I think the United States is trying to use my tactics.
Finally, as has happened with Afghanistan, very little news of the
chaos that has followed the Great Victory. Instead, the propaganda
machine moves on to a new Enemy-- this time, Iran.
Translation: I don't pay attention to the news.
It is very difficult to speak of what is happening in America without
resorting to the hyperbolic cliches of anti-Americanism that have
lost their meaning after so many decades, but that have now finally
come true.
Translation: My anti-American tripe no longer works. Wahhhhhhh!
Perhaps one can only recite the facts, and I have mentioned only some
of them here. This is, quite simply, the most frightening American
administration in modern times, one that is appalling both to the
left and to traditional conservatives. This junta is unabashed in its
imperialist ambitions; it is enacting an Orwellian state of Perpetual
War; it is dismantling, or attempting to dismantle, some of the most
fundamental tenets of American democracy; it is acting without
opposition within the government, and is operating so quickly on so
many fronts that it has overwhelmed and exhausted any popular
opposition.
Translation: I love to use Stalinist buzzwords.
Perhaps it cannot be stopped, but the first step toward slowing it
down is the recognition that this is an American government unlike any
other in this country's history, and one for whom democracy is an
obstacle.
Translation: We must go forward to create a destruction of Western
Civilization to create an anarchy which, as we all know, will result in
a Communist Paradise.
Bart Lidofsky
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