By Mathew Maavak
I had to make the decision to destroy more life, so we continue to destroy life – George W. Bush during the second Presidential debate. – Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, Oct 8, 2004. (transcript links below)
George W. Bush lives up to that reputation with that Freudian slip. His electoral machinery seems to be getting more desperate and what better way to remind of you of the destruction of life than the first public broadcast of a video footage of the March 11 Madrid bombings, just about two weeks before the election. I had predicted this cheap propaganda shot in my previous article Power Plays
“The video, taken at Madrid's Atocha station and aired by Telecinco, is believed to be the first public broadcast of images from the bombings that killed 191 people.” (AP, Oct 19) Telecinco also broadcasted two other videos of “Islamic militant(s) claiming responsibility” for the bombings on behalf of al-Qaida and the promise of more to come. What wonderful timing from a Spain that was opposed to the war against Iraq. But their leaders and an elitist media see things differently, and behind that façade of volatile disagreements, there is a collusion that transcends civilizational and religious antipathy.
That’s what brothers’ keepers mean. Now, Americans have to see through this farce. They have to see through all the “terrorist threats”, footages, and blackmail they get from the media. They have to re-evaluate what the future, the distant future, holds for them and the world.
For this election, they don’t have much of a choice.
During the presidential debates, the hot issues that were supposed to be there, just weren’t. A triumphant Senator John Kerry will represent a more benign face of time-honoured US policies. The polls indicate a tight race and Bush might as well lose the controversial Ohio votes as long as Diebold machines crank up favourable counts elsewhere.
Watch out for more terror surprises such as the release of 9/11 footages, or something dramatic, like the capture or killing of a high value target.
All three debates were bland and replete with repetitions. The questions posed were extremely safe, and all the controversies and documented lies were scrupulously avoided. Both candidates and their moderators seemed comfortable with this arrangement, and watched out for each other in a manner redolent of the candidates fraternal ties at Yale University a long time back.
Bush and Kerry were doing everything possible to woo the Christian votes. They can’t avoid it. And now we can’t avoid it too. The release of those Madrid footages shows how deep a certain nexus exists between our power centres. According to an “August poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, about 85 percent of Americans said religion” was “important in their lives and…72 percent of registered voters said "it is important to them that a president have strong religious beliefs." (Chicago Tribune, Oct 7).
Now, the religious factor in this race is important. You might be surprised that about “4 million evangelical Christians” were “estimated to have stayed away from the polls in 2000 because of uncertainty about Bush.” (Chicago Tribune, Oct 7). And they were right about him but didn’t vote for vice president Al Gore as there still lingers a long-running cockeyed tendency to shove secularism deep down people’s souls.
Many paid the price for Bush’s fraudulent election. Many died coz people were sick of being attacked for their beliefs and didn’t bother to vote. The right-wing zealots did though.
The issue of the Christian faith and belief are straightforward ones that have been constitutionally contorted into a complex set of arguments. Here is what Jesus Christ would probably say to both contestants.
"Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" (Luke 12:14)
Yet the debate rages over gay marriages, abortion, and all the non-intrusive manifestation of faith. Neither candidates emphasised that the church has every right to stick to its beliefs, and exclude views considered heretical. Is this undemocratic?
Then try joining the Skull and Bones brotherhood at Yale. Bush and Kerry were both members and their object of worship still remain unanswered. No one threw that question at them during this latest Ben and Jerry promo. That’s what a massive aggregation of power can do in a society that cherishes its religious values. You can call this exclusivity and both candidates, like the ones before them, are ready to intrude forcibly into the lives of Americans and people elsewhere, religious or secular. And many die from such actions. Thousands already did during Bush’s reign.
Take a look at the questions they had to answer and you’ll see that it is easier to attack the church for its non-intrusive beliefs than say certain Ashkenazi lobbies that want the church out of the American public while cheering on the religious right in Israel, where marrying a non-Jew is illegal. You can forget gay marriages there. These lobbies later return to the church coz the Chosen Ones from the Khanate of Khazar need help in their war against Muslims fanatics.
This systems works when there are too many bloodstained Cains vouching for each other. You see examples of this each day.
Take the UN oil-for-food scam for example. Top US arms inspector claim “the United Nations looked the other way while Saddam Hussein's government skimmed billions of dollars and offered kickbacks to European and Arab cronies. The $60 billion oil-for-food program involved the allocation of vouchers, a venal process that illegally enriched Saddam Hussein's government, prominent foreigners, and influenced Security Council members. The United States virtually controls the Security Council. It looked the other way, and made a U-Turn to ride roughshod over the UN when it was time to invade Iraq. Unlike the impressions given to the public, the backdoor acquiescence to this charade must have been facile.
A large amount of proceeds from this pan-global voucher scam was used to “import illegal goods, including parts for missile systems.” The vouchers "provided Saddam with a useful method of rewarding countries, organizations and individuals willing to cooperate with Iraq to subvert U.N. sanctions." (AP, Oct 7)
How convenient for the US and supposedly hostile nations to subvert the UN, enrich their elites and allow Saddam to import “missiles systems”. Missile systems? The invasion was readied long back, with plenty of contingency excuses should the missing WMDs keep appearing on our media radar.
The US Congress wants full accountability for this massive fraud and Kofi Annan picked former Fed chairman Paul Volcker to investigate the matter. Volcker refuses to divulge details of his report to the US Congress before mid-2005, around the time when a confluence of factors will burn brightly with oil.
Thousands of Iraqi children, not to mention emaciated women and the elderly, died from malnutrition and lack of basic medication. Nobody wanted to forcefully break the sanctions completely by delivering food and medication right to the Iraqis, though channels like the Red Cross. Even in tolerant Muslim societies like Malaysia, major dailies were revved up to splash heart-wrenching photos of this holocaust of the unborn, born, weak, and the dying while Saddam was building his palaces with the oil proceeds. It was a heaven-sent visual propaganda for politicians all over, and for a select few, a heaven-sent loot mercilessly pried from the dying.
“The governments of Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Egypt” profited from this “illicit oil trade with Iraq — more than $8 billion from 1991 until 2003.” (AP, Oct 7). “French, Malaysian, Chinese, Syrians, Egyptians, Swiss, Jordanians, Turks, Italians, Yugoslavians, and agents of the United Arab Emirates…figured prominently on the list.” ( Saddam’s Cronies Grew Rich on Cash Meant for the Starving )
This report was filed on April 22 by David Rennie, and only now is it being given closer scrutiny. So much for media excellence.
This mass starvation happened right under then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s nose while he was splitting weary ears over his Western Imperialisms and Zionist Conspiracies. I remember reporters and volunteers being dispatched to record those horrific scenes in Iraq. Mahathir had visual proof of this unspeakable cruelty, one that can only happen when consecrated, halal and kosher hands clinch deals to rule and, when necessary, despoil the ruled. While this went on, this self-styled champion of the Islamic civilization and “Asian Values” was hell-bent on breaking the spine of his deputy Anwar Ibrahim on charges of homosexuality. (Anwar was recently rolled out of prison in a wheelchair, after the courts declared him innocent of sodomy). Somehow he was sure of Anwar’s guilt; not the existence of an ongoing genocide in a place he exhorted mass wailing from his countrymen.
From those dead Iraqis, a few got rich. Mahathir never exposed this voucher scam, which involved his own nation, in ways he would have surely known. He could allow a little Monica, where instead of a blue dress, an entire mattress was lugged into the courtroom to prove Anwar’s guilt. One of the buildings where Anwar supposedly had his trysts didn’t exist at the time stated by the prosecution.
Still, Malaysian courts, famous for its intelligence-numbing interpretations that regularly favored Mahathir’s interests, allowed the trial and sentencing to proceed. Why? Coz he didn’t want a “homosexual” to lead a Muslim nation. While he played up his morality, Iraqi children paid the price with their mortality. When you have a power struggle, the religious dimension, for or against, can take a ludicrous turn.
Mahathir’s pedagogy — you are either for or against him — is pretty much similar to Bush repetitious rationales like "Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them." (Chicago Tribune, Oct 7). Hitler was more eloquent about this pseudo-religious farce. “Force without spiritual foundation are doomed to failure.”
“Religion” is regularly used to attack others and win power struggles. It can turn a blind eye to mass murders.
Intrusive religion and secularism both suck, and future leaders ought to take note. Attacking beliefs, backed by powerful forces, or using force to enforce beliefs equally backfire, with bullets and mayhem going off in all directions.
Bush wouldn’t be around for his “re-election” if voters who cherished their faith weren’t ticked off. Now, he is unleashing his fake religious convictions to “destroy more life”.
There are too many politicians like Bush and Mahathir who would like to see our world polarised along pseudo-religious lines. And there are too many like Iraq’s Prime Minister Ayad Allawi who will play ball with the oppressors. George Bush Sr was once Saddam’s keeper when he consented to the use of chemical weapons against the Iranians and Kurds.
And you see, Saddam is still alive, and is presumably fed well. Bin Laden is still missing.
Do we give in to political lies? If Kerry wins, he should be held closely accountable for all his future actions. That’s the least we can do for now.
Mathew Maavak
Bombay, Oct 20 2004 @Mathew Maavak, 2004
Part 2 (Next): The fun part. What was debated, and what is reality. Besides the usual clichéd political sound bites, some interesting details stick out.
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