“Weep, buddy, weep. IвЂm gonna vote Bush
and I hope he comes and bombs your ass”
It is not very often that I get unsigned love
letters like this or prognostications about the
fate of my posterior. But there it was staring
me in my face- this short missive provoked
possibly by some unkind public analysis I may
have made about Imperial America and the goons
who currently run the place.
I am not surprised at all. Truths told
bluntly hurt and those who cannot handle it with
their brain often threaten to resort to their
brawn. Like Bush, like Bush-Lover.
Nor am I worried that some day Bush Jr. is
really going to come вЂ�bomb my assвЂ. There
are many things I need to do to shape up my
behind (some sit ups and an aerobic workout
should do) but I know it is still small enough
to avoid any �seat-seeking†missile that the
Pentagon may have conjured up.
What does however interest me immensely is
the idea that I will weep if my �buddy†who
wrote that angry mail votes for Dubya. I cannot
understand why would it hurt me in any special
way if a majority of the American public brings
back Bush to one more term at the White House? I
mean, in the complete absence of any change in
the way power is really controlled or wielded in
the US, what difference does it make to me, as a
citizen of the Third World, which stooge of the
American establishment wins or loses?
In fact given George Bush JrвЂs brilliant
record in doing permanent damage to the very
political, economic and cultural foundations on
which the US Super-turned Hyper-turned Imperial
Power rests I would happily paraphrase вЂ�43вЂ
and say �bring him on†once again. Far from
weeping I would actually rejoice if Bush remains
as President and finishes his historical mission
of dismantling, brick by brick, base by base,
every outpost of the global US Empire.
Sure, I agree in the short run a new Bush
Presidency could see more wars and misery than
what we already have. He might go on to attack
Iran next and then Syria and then North Korea.
In another four years time he will come back to
invade Afghanistan and Iraq once more because by
then they would have surely slipped out of US
control. So there we would go beating around the
Bush all over again.
But despite these dire possibilities of Bush
Reloaded we also need to consider the fact that
US Democrats have an equally bad record of
sending US troops abroad and so there is no real
guarantee that America will not be at war in
future under some �noble†pretext or the
other. After all the Democrats were the ones who
were responsible for the Korean and Vietnam
Wars, not to mention the bombing of Serbia- all
in the service of the same
military-financial-corporate complex that Bush
Jr. serves. Already we know for example that
BushвЂs main opponent at the polls, John Kerry,
objects not to the invasion of Iraq but only to
the �way it was sold†to the world.
So on balance, as far as many in the Third
World are concerned, I think there is nothing
much to really choose between the main
contestants of the next US election. They are
all going to bomb us anyway and to mangle the
English language a bit �A Known Devil in the
Bush is surely worth two Unknown in the Curry,
er, I mean KerryвЂ.
I would recommend strongly that for a while
let us stop our Bush-bashing and calmly consider
what his major contributions to the world have
been since he took over as US President, four
fateful years ago. The list is too long of
course for a short article but one just has to
recount (not Florida) the way Bush inspired the
entire world to rally against him, how he lost
Aznar the Spanish elections and will soon do the
same to Blair and Howard- and you know what I
mean. Not mentioning of course the sheer
entertainment value to countless people of вЂ�BushismsвЂ-
those gems of priceless wisdom that roll off
Bush JrвЂs tongue every time he speaks.
But here are three truly historical вЂ�achievementsвЂ
of the current Bush Jr. regime that deserve his
re-election in the upcoming US polls:
For �outing†the reality of the US as an
Imperial Power: There was once upon a time (just
four years ago) that much of the world actually
believed in the idea of a unipolar world with
America- the �benevolent Superpower†at the
apex of it all. This was the вЂ�End of HistoryвЂ
view that said now that neo-liberal capitalism
had triumphed over socialism- the people of the
world should shut up and put up with the hard
reality of America policing the world.
Sure, some of them had heard of what the US
�policeman†was up to for a hundred years or
more in Latin America, the Philippines and other
nations occupied and plundered by US
corporations. They had of course know also about
the Vietnam War blah, blah, blah but then “the
US is not like the old colonial powers of
Europe” was the standard refrain everywhere.
It was more like a friendly monster, which was
all good intentions but screwed up once in a
while- shit happens etc.
Not anymore. Now you travel from Europe to
Latin America or Africa to Asia it is impossible
to convince people that the US is not going the
way of a classical colonial power- invading
sovereign countries under various pretexts,
grabbing control of their resources, installing
puppet regimes, shooting down local resistance
as вЂ�terroristsвЂ- its all 18th century once
more. The common view now is that the US used to
be a mere Superpower, the collapse of the Soviet
Union made it a Hyper Power and Bush Jr. and his
coterie have foolishly made it into yet another
Imperial Power- with all the tragic consequences
for both victims and perpetrators.
Today everybody easily sees through the
smokescreens and propaganda to realize the
simple fact that US Imperialism, at its core, is
not very different from the Raj and its racist
rule. I didnвЂt say that- thatвЂs what the
ideologues of the War on Terror are openly
calling for every day ever since 9/11.
Thanks Dubya, that saves many of us much
time, energy, resources spent on the political
education of our planetвЂs once confused
population. Their view of America will never
again be as naГЇve and wide-eyed as it was just
yesterday- �when all their troubles seemed so
far awayвЂ.
For undermining the ability of the US to hold
on to Imperial Power: As Zbigniew Brzezinski
once famously noted the three things that make
up a real Superpower are military, economic and
cultural hegemony over the globe. Not long ago
(around four years ago) the US was the
undisputed champion on all three fronts- if you
were not being shocked into silence by a US
missile, you were being awed by the lure of the
US dollar or seduced into submission by the
sheer creative skills of some American performer
or the other.
Not anymore. Despite the frequency with which
Bush Jr. has been shooting away during his
current term he is failing to �shock†the
resistance to US imperial adventures anywhere.
Instead what we see in Iraq- in Najaf, Fallujah,
Nasiriyah- is a people who are fighting US
Occupation with everything they have and it is
the US armed forces that are on retreat. Surely
not a great display of �unbeatable†US
military prowess?
Again, on the global economic front time was
(about four years ago) when, despite some
dissent here and there, the US dominated
discussions on world trade rules, determined
foreign currency values and was the undisputed
model on which many countries based their
national economic policies.
Now global resistance to the unilateralist
approach of the Bush administration on trade
issues is preventing the US from shaping the
rules of the game anymore. In the meanwhile
record US fiscal deficits and reckless increases
in foreign loans are undermining the US dollar
so seriously that the entire current global
financial architecture-skewed to US benefit- may
actually collapse soon. The ability of US
financial �voodoo doctors†to print lots of
color paper and get the world to accept them is
diminishing by the hour and with that the days
of the �Great American Free Lunch†too are
coming to an end. Honestly, from now on, it is
going to be Bye, Bye Mr. Free American Pie!
Turning to the status of US hegemony over
global culture, I think the critical part of вЂ�cultureвЂ
that we need to look at is really global
information flows and the way the US has
skillfully controlled them in the past. There
was a time (four years ago) when whether it was
the US media or Hollywood, people around the
globe lapped it all up eagerly with their
subconscious screaming вЂ�Gimme More!вЂ
But that was in the past. Now the US media-
whether television or print is the laughing
stock of the world- what with its editors and
embedded reporters losing credibility everywhere
over their willful misreporting of alleged WMDs
in Iraq, their refusal to foresee the Iraq
quagmire and their dishonest apologies on being
exposed for what they are- mere charlatans. In
the process the US establishment too has lost
its crucial ability to convince the world that
its imperialism abroad serves the �best
interests of all humanityвЂ- a very serious
loss indeed that in turn hurts its military and
economic capabilities too.
Nobody but Bush Jr. could have done this to the
most powerful country on Earth ie., bring it
back to Planet Earth. Dubya, we truly love Ya !!
For preparing the conditions for the US to
get back to being a Normal Power: Even as Bush
Jr. and friends openly ride the fantasy horses
of cowboy colonialism their sheer ineptness is
fast turning the journey into a complete
nightmare for the US elites. And therein lies
Bush JrвЂs potential contribution to the rest
of the world вЂanother four years in the White
House and he will screw it up so badly for his
Masters that they will not recover for at least
a couple of generations.
For in his hot pursuit of вЂ�failed statesвЂ
to vanquish, Bush is spurring America on to
becoming yet another вЂ�failed SuperpowerвЂ-
just like its Cold War rival the Soviet Union.
The unprecedented dominance of global affairs
that the US has managed since the collapse of
the Soviet Union was destined to end at some
point anyway (if it has more muscles than it can
Flex, it will always go like T.Rex) and the
world has to thank Bush Jr. for accelerating the
process.
Iraq today is to the US, in sheer military
terms, what Afghanistan became for the USSR in
the eighties. The expense, the loss of lives,
the sheer resistance from the occupied, the loss
of global allies are all taking their toll
steadily and it is just a matter of time before
the Joker-in-Chief brings the house of cards
tumbling down.
I honestly donвЂt think that the US is not
about to disintegrate like the USSR or anything
as dramatic as that. But it is right now on
course to go from being the worldвЂs only
Superpower to something like say Britain or
France- pining away for past glory-a simpering-
whimpering- former-Superpower.
There is of course a good chance also that
the US could return to being just another normal
Power- not feared but respected, not hated but
liked, wealthy without being greedy, strong but
not a bully- like say umm….Canada. But that
would depend entirely on what the American
people do or do not do to change the way their
country is really run. And thanks to Bush Jr.
the people are now raring for some serious
change.
Consider this. Just as in the case of the
Soviet Union, whose misadventures in Afghanistan
turned its own population against the ruling
regime, large sections of the American people
too are today deeply upset with the US
Occupation of Iraq. And not just Iraq but also
about the growing unemployment, homelessness,
inequality, the loss of democracy, the influence
of fundamentalism on gender and education
policies- the list of grievances runs long and
deep.
In fact I believe they are ready for nothing
short of a full-fledged revolt that will sweep
away not just Bush Jr. but a whole lot of
lobbies and vested interests that have hijacked
US democracy and plan to crash them through
every great value their nation represents. A
hijacking that is nothing less than the Mother
of all 911s.
And that is precisely why it does not matter
if Bush Jr. does get elected as the US President
again. It would be too easy, too cheap to get
rid of him merely through the ballot- like
letting Pol Pot go with a parking ticket.
What the rest of the world wants to see are
walls and statues tumbling, people planting
flowers on tanks, the hated �leader†chased
by grannies with placards, crowds flashing V
signs - in other words the Full Monty of a
PeopleвЂs Power Revolution. Anything less would
be cheating Bush Jr. and �All the
PresidentвЂs Men†of their just rewards for
everything they have done for their country and
the world.
Seriously вЂ�buddyвЂ, vote Bush and bring
him on!
Satya Sagar is a writer, videomaker and
journalist based in Thailand. He can be
contacted at
sagarnama@...