Revolution #33, February 5, 2006, posted
at revcom.us
As George Bush prepared to enter the Capitol to deliver his State
of the Union address, his path was cleared by a crew of ghouls. Torturers,
liars, worshippers of corporate greed, and(all of them(mass
murderers. There was Michael Chertoff(commander of “homeland
security,” the man responsible for sending the U.S. military into
New Orleans with “shoot to kill” orders after abandoning the
poor and Black people of the region to flooding. There was new Supremacist
Court Justice Samuel Alito, itching to radically shift the balance of
the Court, with rights people consider basic(including the right
to abortion(hanging by a thread.
There was Condi Rice, fresh from a tour of Europe defending secret
CIA torture chambers, and lining up support for U.S. aggression against
Iran. There was Alberto Gonzales, the Torturer-General, whose outstanding
contribution to legal scholarship is his declaration that prohibitions
against torture in the Geneva Convention are “quaint.” There
was Dick Cheney, last seen twisting arms in the Senate to oppose John
McCain’s already toothless “anti-torture” amendment because
it would “tie the President’s hands.” And finally, the commander-in-chief
himself, who would use the first half of his speech in a fascist rant
justifying global empire and domination with repeated incantations of
“9/11.”
On the other side of the equation, there are billions of people who
are victims of everything the Bush regime concentrates. And
for a brief moment, that world intruded into the Capitol itself. Just
before Bush demanded America line up to support the troops, and before
he made a big show on camera of parading a family who’s son died in
Iraq, Capitol police demonstrated the essence of the freedom and democracy
that Bush claims his war is about defending at home. Police handcuffed
anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, dragged
her from her seat in the Capitol(and arrested her for
wearing a t-shirt that listed the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq.
News reports say that before entering the Capitol (as an invited guest
of a congresswoman), Sheehan was part of a group who faced the executive
mansion and repeatedly shouted, “You’re evicted! Get out of our
house!”
In the buildup to the State of the Union address, important figures
in literature, the arts, and public life stepped forward to endorse
and speak up for the call to politically drown out the speech, and demand
that Bush Step Down! Georgetown University students who turned their
backs on Gonzales when he spoke at their school called for students
to protest during the speech. Gore Vidal concluded a wonderfully nasty
critique of Bush (President Jonah) with a call to his readers to join
demonstrations during the speech, and the demonstration in DC on February
4. Howard Zinn and actor Ed Begley Jr. made statements encouraging people
to drown out Bush’s lies, and public figures like Congressman John Conyers,
Brig. General Janis Karpinski (retired), Gloria Steinem, actor Mark
Ruffalo, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Congressman Bobby Rush, and
actor Sean Penn added their signatures to the World Can’t Wait Call.
(Links to these statements and others are at worldcantwait.org).
And in dozens of cities around the country, thousands of people responded
to the call from World Can’t Wait to “bring the noise,” politically
drown out the State of the Union speech, and mobilize to protest Saturday,
February 4 at the White House (see photo spread on protests in the centerfold
of this issue).
An Unrepentant Rant for Empire
Bush spoke at a time when a large section of society is furious with
him(furious about his lies, his war, his spying, his torturing,
his responsibility for vast suffering and death after Katrina. Beyond
that, a significant section of even those who supported him, or still
support him, are very uneasy about the situation in Iraq.
In post-speech spin, a CNN analyst said the speech was aimed at changing
the minds of people who think it was a “mistake” to send troops
into Iraq(to speak to American people who didn’t believe war would
be this difficult. That it would cost the U.S. $250 billion, or that
2,242 U.S. troops would die (and still counting). Or that nearly three
years after invading Iraq, the U.S. would have 138,000 troops under
fire, facing fierce resistance.
An important element of Bush’s speech was to rally the wavering, and
mobilize the converted behind the war. He declared:
“On September 11, 2001, we found that problems originating in
a failed and oppressive state seven thousand miles away could bring
murder and destruction to our country. Dictatorships shelter terrorists,
feed resentment and radicalism, and seek weapons of mass destruction.
Democracies replace resentment with hope, respect the rights of their
citizens and their neighbors, and join the fight against terror. Every
step toward freedom in the world makes our country safer, and so we
will act boldly in freedom’s cause.”
Every word of this was a lie. Let’s look at the “hope” that
Bush’s democracies have brought to the region. In Afghanistan, in most
of the countryside life for women is unchanged from Taliban days, and
heroin production is back as the country’s principal functioning economic
activity. And the foundational elements of U.S.-imposed democracy in
Iraq are the torture chambers of Abu Ghraib, and massive U.S. bombing
from the air(an almost completely covered-up war crime.
The “freedom” Bush is bringing to the Middle East is the
freedom for U.S. imperialism to dominate the region, to lock out rival
powers, to control the world’s oil spigot, and to more effectively and
ruthlessly exploit the people and resources of that region. How else
can you explain Bush upholding Saudi Arabia, one of the most ruthlessly
repressive regimes on earth, with no rights at all for women, and Egypt,
with its torture chambers full of dissidents, as models of positive
reform? Meanwhile Iran is currently in the bulls-eye of Bush’s endless
war on the world. Not because of the state of its democracy, but because
the Islamic fundamentalist regime there is an impediment to U.S. domination
of the region.
Lying and Spying
In his speech, Bush was never more belligerent than when he upheld
his illegal domestic spying program. He kept the program secret because
he knew it was illegal. There are laws that allow for very invasive
surveillance on people in the U.S. Special secret (Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act(FISA) courts rubber-stamp almost every request
by the government to break into people’s homes secretly. The Patriot
Act authorizes the government to snoop into what you read, what websites
you visit, and even your medical records. It’s illegal, for example,
for a librarian to even let you know that the government is examining
your reading list.
None of this was enough for Bush. He secretly told the National
Security Agency(a highly secret agency with massive eavesdropping
technology(to spy on people without any supervision
from any court, and without issuing any kind of
warrant.
This is both a massive operation to snoop into the thinking, reading,
and conversations of people in this country, and a tearing up of the
rule of law.
Back in the USA(Suffering and Repression
In many ways, Bush’s case is: Your American way of life cannot survive
without me doing all this shit around the world, and spying on and locking
you up without a trial if you complain. So shut up and put up with it.
OK, what about that great American way of life? Let’s deconstruct
Bush’s speech on what he has in mind for the homeland(aside from
spying on everyone. Bush spent the last half of his speech running a
laundry list of vicious attacks on a very wide spectrum of people in
this country. All dressed up as “compassionate” concern.
Speaking of New Orleans, Bush called for justice and equality(!) But
without taking responsibility for knowing that the
levees would give way and flood much of the city. Without taking responsibility
for sending in troops to “shoot to kill” folks trying to survive
and get food and water for others. Without taking responsibility for
stranding tens of thousands(for letting white racist police shoot
over the heads of people trying to flee the city. Without taking responsibility
for his right-wing, white racist “soulmate” William Bennet
saying you could stop crime by aborting all Black babies. Or the congressman
who said we couldn’t wipe out public housing in New Orleans, but god
did it for us! And without taking responsibility for shipping the Black
people of New Orleans to motels and shelters far from their homes, and
abandoning them there while he plans to rebuild the city with far fewer
Black people.
There was another racist and genocidal element to Bush’s speech disguised
as compassion. There is a sharp divide among African American churches
in the U.S., with some church leaders signing onto Bush’s agenda using
“traditional values” (prejudice against gays and lesbians)
as a justification, while others are fighting for tolerance and inclusion
(see “Black Church Summit Takes
Stand Against Anti-Gay Discrimination,” and “Religious
Voice Against Christian Fascism, Reflections on Pacific School of Religion’s
Response to the Religious Right,” by Dr. Hubert Locke in Revolution
#32). When Bush says he plans to be “working closely with African-American
churches and faith-based groups, to deliver rapid HIV tests to millions,”
this most certainly means embedding a hateful fundamentalist religious
and political program into whatever little assistance for AIDS patients
actually gets funded. And, through that, building up a political and
financial infrastructure of churches in the Black community who are
enmeshed in the whole fascist program.
Of immigrants, Bush said, “this economy could not function without
them.” And then he called for ”an immigration system that upholds
our laws, reflects our values, and serves the interests of our economy.
Our nation needs orderly and secure borders. To meet this goal, we must
have stronger immigration enforcement and border protection. And we
must have a rational, humane guest worker program that rejects amnesty…allows
temporary jobs for people who seek them legally…and reduces smuggling
and crime at the border.”
There is nothing “humane” about laws that criminalize survival,
or force people into the shadows while being worked for less than minimum
wage. What is “humane” about bringing people here, working
them to death, preventing their families from joining them, and shipping
them home when they are used up? Or marginalizing their language and
culture? And stronger “border protection” means militarizing
the border with troops and walls, leading to more deaths by dehydration
in remote desert crossing points among those driven to El Norte by the
workings of global imperialism.
Hardly anyone in this country was spared from Bush’s “compassionate”
cruel domestic agenda:
- With millions of elderly and poor Americans seeing their limited
access to medical care and expensive medicines being stripped away,
Bush called for tax changes to further privatize health care(changes
that will accelerate the situation where health care is increasingly
available only to those who can pay vast sums for their own insurance. - Bush’s lecture about America’s addiction to oil can only be taken
in the spirit of a drug dealer decrying his clients’ addiction to
drugs. When the L.A. Times did a little fact-checking on Bush’s promises,
Severin Borenstein, an energy economist at the University of California,
Berkeley, said, “the funding increase for clean energy research
is shockingly small.” And one element of Bush’s idea of “alternative
energy” strategy is more off-shore oil exploration. - Bush even somehow had the gall to try to divert people’s anger
over what he referred to as “unethical conduct by public officials”
(or, as most people would say, taking bribes) into an attack on “activist
courts that try to redefine marriage”! In other words, he somehow
spun widespread exposure of blatant corruption in his regime into
a gratuitous gay-bashing attack on the right of lesbians and gays
to marry. Another bit of fascist demagoguery that didn’t seem to provoke
much notice or outrage in the mainstream media.
The Spin and the Aftershocks
Bush’s speech was both draconian and Hitler-like. The Hitler part
was even more striking if you watched it on TV(as the Republicans
(and some Democrats) repeatedly rose to their feet, zombie-like, in
waves, to roar approval of the most blatant lies, demagogic calls to
arms, and vicious threats.
It’s a sobering testimony to what time it is that a fascist rant like
this gets spun by the mainstream, including liberal mainstream media,
as a reasonable, toned down speech.
The New York Times wrote: “President Bush offered the nation
a modest menu of energy, health and education proposals and warned against
the false comfort of isolationism.” And called his tone, “more
tempered and less partisan than a year ago.”
And the Democratic “response” was so lame, so accepting
of Bush’s terms, and so boring that no more needs to be said about that.
All this highlights the really historic importance of those heroes
who are stepping forward, from all walks of life, to say NO to Bush,
and to demand he step down and take his program with him. Many people
have taken that stand from many perspectives. Our Party’s views on what’s
wrong with the system and what needs to replace it are spoken to briefly
in the RCP Statement read at protests
on Jan 31, and can be found elsewhere in this issue and at revcom.us.
At the same time, it is crucial right now that people who grasp the
dimensions of what is up(who see how this speech represents a
declaration of determination by Bush to pursue his fascist agenda(to
intensify their own efforts to bring forward a movement that is actually
committed to and able to politically mobilize millions in a counter-dynamic
to drive out this regime. That movement can be a vehicle that
tens and then hundreds of thousands and more can jump onto, and establish
a societal pole, around which millions more can rally.
The people of the world are counting on us.
Straight Talk on the “War on Terror”
Here’s a critical truth that can’t be finessed: There is no
“War on Terror.” There is a war for empire.
The plans for U.S. war on Iraq were drawn up long before 9/11,
and were pulled off the shelf and put into effect using 9/11 as
the excuse. That’s why all the reasons Bush gave for going to
war with Iraq(the weapons of mass destruction, the nuclear weapons
program, the ties to al-Qaeda” were lies. Because the
real reason for the war is to pre-empt the emergence of any rivals
to U.S. domination of that region (and the world).
That is what this war in Iraq, and the threats against
Iran, are about. And this is true even though there are forces who
pose real obstacles to that agenda, who apparently were associated
with 9/11 and who have an agenda of their own that is no good.
Nor is there(fundamentally(a war to “bring democracy
to the Middle East.” Strategists around Bush do believe that
democratic forms like elections can facilitate more stable, more reliable
U.S.-client regimes in the region. But (a) that restructuring of Middle
East regimes is to facilitate U.S. domination and exploitation,and
(b) imperialism can live quite well with regimes with no democratic
pretenses at all.
Look at a country that for quite some time has been listed as a
key ally in the “war on terror,” Uzbekistan. Craig Murray,
the former British ambassador to that country, told the Bush Crimes
Commission that 60 percent of the people in that country are slaves,
paid seven cents a day for twelve-hour days in the cotton fields.
That “there is no freedom of assembly. There’s no freedom of
religion. There’s no freedom of speech. There’s absolutely no free
media. There’s no opposition allowed. One in eight people are employed
by the police or secret police, formally employed by the secret police
to keep an eye on their neighbors.” A UN investigation concluded
that torture(including people being raped with broken bottles(was
widespread and systemic, and that those subjected to this torture
are forced to sign confessions that they are allied with al- Qaeda
and Osama bin Laden. (See “Tribunal
Indicts Bush“(Revolution #32 at revcom.us) Did you
hear about this in the State of the Union Address? No. Uzbekistan
was considered a “model regime” in the region(at least
until the U.S. recently was denied access to a key military air base
there.
And the “war on terror” is not about “making America
safer.” The torture chambers of Uzbekistan, of Iraq, of Afghanistan,
of Egypt, of Saudi Arabia … are not about “finding Osama bin
Laden.” They are about bringing down mass terror on the angry
people of those countries. And the more this brutality and torture
is perceived as an expression of the will of the American people
(the more it feeds and creates a bizarre synergy with reactionary
religious fundamentalist trends in that region.
Want to understand why you heard such a shameless, pathetic “response”
to the State of the Union speech by Virginia Democratic Governor Tim
Kaine? His starting point is that “Our commitment to winning
the war on terrorism compels us to ask this question: Are the president’s
policies the best way to win this war?”
You can’t buy into the logic of the “war on terror,” and
really, uncompromisingly, oppose the crimes of Bush regime.
If you fall into the orientation of trying to make the Democrats
be what they are not, and never will be, you will end up becoming
more like what the Democrats actually are.
Bob Avakian, Chairman, Revolutionary
Communist Party, USA
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolution Online
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