The Empire Strikes Back

When you get into an argument, you don’t give the answer you wish you could give, you give the answer you know how to give and you give it with a sneer of victory. So when Bush felt he had to respond to Cindy Sheehan, he responded to a different question, the answer to which made him seem strong and determined.

"I think those who advocate immediate withdrawal from not only Iraq but the Middle East are advocating a policy that would weaken the United States."

Now Ms. Sheehan didn’t ask him to do that, she asked what the noble cause was that justified the loss of life. Corporate imperialism isn’t the answer he wants to give, but it’s the answer. She knows it, we know it and the President and his gang of forty thieves knows it.

“This is the biggest smokescreen from him yet. I didn't ask him to withdraw the troops; I asked him, what 'noble cause' Casey died for. I am still waiting for one of the press corps to ask him that. I am still waiting for that answer.”

Cindy Sheehan is renewing the vigil, but she won’t get that answer. The noble cause was greed and lust for power and so it remains. The preponderance of evidence supports the idea that Bush deliberately set the stage, furnishing it with fabrications and illuminating it with suppressed facts and we applauded. There never was a chance that this conflict would pay for itself, only a fool would believe Iraq would default to Western Liberal Democracy in the absence of a strong leader and only a fool would believe that permanent occupation of an Iraq containing a permanent US military presence was not the goal. Only a fool won’t see that this government will do anything, no matter how immoral, illegal or dangerous to serve the Oil Oligarchy.

There are always enough fools eager to be fooled. I followed a car this morning, with two flapping flags and bumper stickers proclaiming every sort of patriotic non sequitur. Why is it that declarations of pride and flag waving are the immediate response to any and all shameful actions by the United States?

I don’t know whether our world will end with a bang or a whimper, but our country will end with flag waving, denial and patriotic slogans – and that’s the only answer I know how to give.