NP? "we have a fool in charge and he does not speak for us"

[pynchonoid]

The voice of America 
Only his people can stop Bush now - and many are
speaking out against war in Iraq 

Simon Tisdall
Saturday October 12, 2002
The Guardian 


[...] Americans can stop America's next war as they
have stopped similar planned or actual idiocies in the
past. That the Bush clique pays scant heed to Arab and
Muslim concerns, has no time for "euro-wimps" and
other appeasers is brutally clear. But domestic public
opinion is a different story - and that story is
changing. Slowly, inconsistently but palpably,
ordinary Americans are making their voices heard. This
is no anti-war movement to compare with Vietnam. Their
motivations are often practical, even mundane. But a
strange phenomenon is now apparent in which Karl Rove,
Bush's top electoral strategist and poll-watcher, may
yet emerge as a more potent force than the
Cheney-Rumsfeld axis and all the other full-spectrum
dominators combined. 

Each time Bush ups the ante, makes another, ever more
far-fetched, fearsome claim about the Baghdad
bogeyman, domestic support wavers or slips. It
certainly does not rise, as this week's Pew Center
survey confirms. Far from uniting his nation, as he
claims, Bush's demagoguery is discernibly exposing and
deepening its divisions not just on Iraq but along the
deep, still heaving faultlines of the 2000 election.
More and more of the 76% of voters who did not support
him then (he won 47% of the popular vote on a 51%
turnout) find their judgment vindicated now. "The
public is deeply split," says the Pew survey. Be sure
that Rove is watching, with a weather eye to the 2004
election, even as the hawks fly high and blind. 

Bush still enjoys considerable but softening overall
support; his approval ratings are steadily declining.
The latest month-on-month Gallup shows support for
military action dropping towards 50% despite the vast
weight of official propaganda reworking last year's
still resonant trauma. If a unilateral war without
allies or UN backing is postulated, as in this week's
New York Times/CBS poll, a clear majority opposes
Bush. Majorities also say Bush should allow UN weapons
inspectors to return to Iraq, and they question his
motives. These findings are hardly conclusive. But
they suggest a trend, a rising level of distrust; they
are reason to believe that Bush may yet be given
pause. 

That the anti-Bush, silenced majority feels it is
being ignored by politicians and the mainstream media
is abundantly clear from unsolicited American
responses to a critique of this week's Cincinnati
national address by Bush published on the Guardian's
website* and on US links. This random sample also
indicates rapidly rising anxiety, frustration and
anger about Iraq, and Bush himself. Here, perhaps, the
authentic voice of America may be heard. 

"I have never seen so much bullshit thrown at the
American public in my lifetime, with too many people
thinking it may be true if the president says it,"
emails a 77-year-old from Manchester, New Hampshire.
"We are being rail roaded into war over here. I am
astounded by our president and his tactics utilising
fear," says one writer. "When I voted for Bush I had
no idea what he would unleash," says another. An
Arizonan believes that Bush is "a complete and
pathetic idiot ... I think enough Americans are
beginning to see that the real regime change needs to
take place at the White House". "The Bush presidency
should have been nipped in the bud by the supreme
court," writes an Illinois resident. "We've been
bamboozled and Congress doesn't seem to know what to
do." From Maryland comes the cry: "As an American I am
totally speechless at whatever emanates from Bush's
mouth - I mean, my 12-year-old son would make a better
president." In New York, some feel the same way. "To
attack with so little proof is ghastly ... As someone
who smelled the World Trade Center and its human
occupants burn every day for three months, I do not
wish that fate on the long-suffering Iraqi people." 

An emailer from Bush's Texas believes "all he is
trying to do is divert attention from his failure as a
leader ... under Bush we are giving up all our civil
rights in the name of fighting the war on terror. If
we do not agree with him, we are anti-American." A
Californian agrees: "The American media shows complete
indifference to ... the opinions of many if not most
Americans (of whom) a majority are against this stupid
adventure." "As an older American who loves her
country, I am terrified," writes Katie Redd. "Younger
Americans just do not seem to realise the dangers of
this arrogant, stupid little man. I pray God will help
us - because our main press glorifies him and few
congressmen oppose him." A resident of lower Manhattan
says Bush is beginning to sound like a "movie trailer
for Creatures with an Atom Brain". 

Indeed, Americans are far more scathing about Bush
than supposedly anti-American Europeans. "Redneck
pea-brain" is one epithet; "King George", "Lord High
Executioner" and "imperialist" are others. "Insane"
and "madman" crop up a lot. "Loony" says a
psychiatrist from Ohio. "Corporate terrorist" says a
vexed lady from Florida. There are voices from the
other side, of course, enraged by foreign criticism.
"Stupid, ignorant asshole ... Pathetic limey twit ...
Islamofascist apologist ... Snotty eurotrash ...
Parasitic appeasers ... When we want your opinion,
we'll come over there and beat it out of you!" But the
balance is 9-1 against. 

Yet crucially, amid all this angst and ire, Iraq is
not the big issue on American minds. All polls agree
that the economy and jobs are the main concern. Up to
60% do not approve of Bush's economic stewardship;
that figure is rising. Feeding in are worries about
Enron-type corruption, the stock market plunge and
dwindling personal saving accounts. Despite Bush's
politics of fear, what Americans are really frightened
of is deepening recession. And they rightly suspect
that a costly Middle East war, oil shocks and
spreading financial instability could make matters
much, much worse. As Bill Clinton said, "It's the
economy, stupid". In America, it always is. Here is
the mortal gap in Bush's war armour. Here, in the
prospect of following his father into one-term
obloquy, is what could yet stop Bush on Iraq. 

Americans worry about Iraq. They worry about their own
country more. And Bush, not Saddam, is pig in the
middle. "This man is destroying our nation piece by
piece," writes Jewel from Missouri. "We, the unheard
American public, pray that the world realises that we
have a fool in charge and he does not speak for us." 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,810488,00.html


...I'm against the war, no matter how much stopping
the war will cost my oil business friends, the
fortunate ones who measure their income in the tens of
thousands of dollars/day from production wells down in
the Permian basin and Austin Chalk. We've killed
enough people already in the working out of the
grandiose visions of holy vengeance of Bin Laden and
Bush and their bloodthirsty buddies. 






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<http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/>

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