Not by a long shot. One who didn't buy the Bush administration hokum about "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq was George McGovern, Second World War bomber pilot and leading critic of the Vietnam War: The Reason Why by George McGovern The Nation 04/21/03 issue.
Appearing to enjoy his role as Commander in Chief of the armed forces above all other functions of his office, and unchecked by a seemingly timid Congress, a compliant Supreme Court, a largely subservient press and a corrupt corporate plutocracy, George W. Bush has set the nation on a course for one-man rule.
He treads carelessly on the Bill of Rights, the United Nations and international law while creating a costly but largely useless new federal bureaucracy loosely called "Homeland Security." Meanwhile, such fundamental building blocks of national security as full employment and a strong labor movement are of no concern. The nearly $1.5 trillion tax giveaway, largely for the further enrichment of those already rich, will have to be made up by cutting government services and shifting a larger share of the tax burden to workers and the elderly. This President and his advisers know well how to get us involved in imperial crusades abroad while pillaging the ordinary American at home.
We are only seeing the very beginings of what will hopefully become a far more widespread skepticism of the current links between big business and the Pentagon, in no small part because of the scandalous crony capitalism displayed by this administration and Halliburton in Iraq. Not only is the issue critically important in itself. It also seems to me that Democrats could be scoring a lot more public-opinion points by exploiting public anger over shameless war profiteering. McGovern didn't have any problem talking about it, even before the huge Halliburton contracts were let:
The invasion of Iraq and other costly wars now being planned in secret are fattening the ever-growing military-industrial complex of which President Eisenhower warned in his great farewell address. War profits are booming, as is the case in all wars. While young Americans die, profits go up. But our economy is not booming, and our stock market is not booming. Our wages and incomes are not booming. While waging a war against Iraq, the Bush Administration is waging another war against the well-being of America.
And former Methodist minister McGovern is unimpressed by Bush's reported intimate communications with the Almighty:
The President frequently confides to individuals and friendly audiences that he is guided by God's hand. But if God guided him into an invasion of Iraq, He sent a different message to the Pope, the Conference of Catholic Bishops, the mainline Protestant National Council of Churches and many distinguished rabbis--all of whom believe the invasion and bombardment of Iraq is against God's will. In all due respect, I suspect that Karl Rove, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice--and other sideline warriors--are the gods (or goddesses) reaching the ear of our President.
No, not everyone drank the "WMD" kool-aid.
1 comment:
not by a long shot. there were thousands of us, not as well-known or able to be heard as George McGovern, saying the same thing - loudly, to one another, to our friends, on the internet, in groups, in letters to our congresspeople, our (P)resident, etc. the administration's recent admissions that gosh, oh golly gee, maybe they overspoke a few things, don't impress me one bit.
George McGovern. sigh. what a different world it would be.
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