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When the neocons launched the Bush administration's
invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and announced plans for invading
Syria and Iran, I labeled Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz,
and Rice "the five Morons." With the passage of time
I see that I over-estimated their mental capabilities.
The "cakewalk" war
has now lasted longer than World War II with Nazi Germany, and
no end is in sight. It has cost the US taxpayers $310 billion
in out-of-pocket costs with many additional hundreds of billions
coming due in veterans' medical bills and other expenses yet
to be paid.
To carry on the pointless war,
which has achieved nothing but death, destruction, and hatred
of America, Bush has had to call up inactive reserves who long
ago completed their active duty service to their country and
have managed to get on with their lives. It is well known that
the older one gets the harder it is to find employment or the
energy to restart a mothballed business. But Bush is too busy
saving us from terrorism to care about people's lives.
Despite the lack of US troops
and Bush's inability to prevail in Afghanistan and Iraq, neocons
in Bush's government are working around the clock to instigate
war with Iran and Syria.
I thought that I had Rumsfeld
pegged as the complete dolt, but I was stunned when I read Associated
Press reporter Robert Burns account of what Rumsfeld told 200
Navy aviators in a question and answer session at Fallon Naval
Air Station on August 28. "The thing that keeps me up at
night," said Rumsfeld, is the success of terrorist groups
in "manipulating the media."
Rumsfeld told the pilots that
terrorists "are actively manipulating the media in this
country" by falsely blaming US troops for civilian deaths
in Iraq and Afghanistan. All that "collateral damage"
we hear about, the tens of thousands of dead and maimed civilians,
is just terrorist propaganda. "The enemy lies constantly
. . . and with impunity. . . . The enemy is so much better at
communicating." Rumsfeld made similar remarks to the Veterans
of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada, where he was presented
the Dwight D. Eisenhower Distinguished Service Award. Eisenhower
must be rolling over in his grave.
Now I get it. When Fox News'
Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilley assured us that Saddam Hussein
had weapons of mass destruction that would be used against us
if we didn't strike first, they were being manipulated by Osama
bin Laden, who used America to get rid of the secular Saddam
Hussein and to create a new training and recruitment ground for
al Qaeda and fundamentalist fanatics.
When the New York Times let
Judith Miller serve as a propagandist for war with Iraq, the
Times was being manipulated by Muslim terrorists, not by neocons.
When CNN, the networks and
columnists like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin reassure us that
we will win the war unless we pull out prematurely, they are
being manipulated by terrorists. Finally I understand what the
Weekly Standard, National Review, the Wall Street Journal editorial
page, AEI, and the online site Frontpage are all about.
The terrorists are so clever
at manipulation that Americans cannot perceive that we have been
sucked deep into a war that is creating the Islamic fundamentalism
that we so desperately fear.
Obviously, I misjudged Rumsfeld's
intelligence. Anyone who can figure out the Muslim conspiracy
is off the charts. What I can't figure is why Rumsfeld is willing
for America to continue to be sucked in. Don't tell me that terrorists
are manipulating Rumsfeld, too!
I keep waiting for the money
appeal from AIPAC. I already know what it is going to say: "Although
AIPAC is undisputedly the most powerful lobby in America and
can determine with impunity the fate of every elected official,
we cannot match the terrorists' ability to manipulate the media.
Polls show that terrorists' manipulation of the US media is causing
American support for the war to dwindle away. Please send more
millions to counter the terrorists' control of the American media.
We are winning in the Middle East but losing at home."
One of the lessons one learns
in life is that things are not always what they seem to be. Before
I watched Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's National Press
Club broadcast on C-Span (August 28), I regarded AIPAC as Israel's
friend and promoter. Now I realize that I was wrong. As the two
distinguished professors made perfectly clear, anyone who cares
about the survival of Israel should scorn the bribes, threats,
and blandishments of AIPAC.
AIPAC led the Israeli government
onto a path where diplomacy is no longer a tool that Israel can
use. Instead, Israel relies on Mao's dictum that "power
comes out of the barrel of a gun" or from a bulldozer that
knocks down Palestinians' homes, uproots their olive groves,
and enrages Muslims at Israel's inhumanity. Backed into a corner
with no tool but violence, Israel faces hundreds of millions
of increasingly angry Muslims.
If Bush were a true friend
of Israel, he would never have let Israel again destroy Lebanon,
this time under the pretext of striking at Hezbollah.
AIPAC and Bush have allowed,
or caused, Israel to do itself so much damage in the eyes of
Muslims and the wider world that a peaceful resolution in the
MIddle East is no longer in people's thoughts. With the mighty
US military checked in Iraq by a handful of Sunnis, and the mighty
Israeli army checked in Lebanon by a handful of Hezbollah, violence
is unlikely to settle the matter in a way that neocons in the
US and Zionists in Israel would like.
The only hope is that Bush
and Olmert miraculously turn into grown men, admit their mistakes,
apologize, send reparations and commit to winning acceptance
of Israel and America based on Israel's and America's good behavior.
It would be nice to see in operation some of the superior morality
that the two claim.
Considering the extraordinary
hubris and self-righteousness of neocons and Zionists, nothing
like this can possibly happen. Israel, the US, and the Muslim
world will continue to bleed.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the
Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of
National Review. He is coauthor of The
Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com
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