ZGram - 9/29/2002 - "Bush looks for buddies in bad times"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGRAM - Where Truth is Destiny

September 29, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Margolis has it almost right - the gem of this piece is the comment 
about Germany in the role of "pardoned criminal."  The fly in the 
ointment is his ingrained conditioned reflex - but no matter!  We 
simply say "bless you!" and let it go at that.

This is one of the most-read journalistic voices from the Great White 
North, and people pay heed when he speaks!

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September 29, 2002

Bush looks for buddies in bad times

By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Contributing Foreign Editor

President George Bush blasted Democrats last week for "not being 
interested in the security of the American people." Democrats, it 
seems, were not jumping fast enough on Bush's invade-Iraq bandwagon.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat and war veteran, 
furiously demanded Bush apologize for this slander. Bush spokesmen 
claimed the president was quoted out of context, but the Democrats 
remained enraged.

Many senior Democrats are decorated war veterans.

Let's see what all those Republican "chickenhawks" clamouring for war 
against Iraq did during America's last major conflict, Vietnam (with 
thanks to the muckraking New Hampshire Gazette).

*	President George Bush - a cushy slot near home engineered by 
dad in the Texas Air National Guard; apparently went AWOL for an 
entire year; service records never revealed.

*	Vice President Dick Cheney - no military service.

*	Chief Pentagon hawks Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz - no 
military service.

*	Grand Inquisitor John Ashcroft - no military service.

*	Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott, no military service.

Media neo-cons baying for war against Iraq: William Kristol, Michael 
Ledeen, Bill O'Reilly, Charles Krauthammer, George Will, Ken Adelman, 
Chris Mathews, and Rush Limbaugh - no military service during Vietnam.

These men are all around my age. During that time, I enlisted in the 
U.S. Army. Where were they when so many men were going into battle 
and to their deaths?

Now, these bellicose crusaders want to send more young Americans into 
another unnecessary war.

Bush should be ashamed of insulting Democrat war vets like hero 
Senator Dan Inouye, Al Gore, Richard Gephardt, David Bonior, Tom 
Daschle, John Kerry and even Teddy Kennedy, who all served their 
nation in uniform.

Yes, Bill Clinton was a draft dodger, but Bush's war record was not 
much better. The only senior member of the Bush administration with 
an honourable military record is Gen. Colin Powell, and he is least 
in favour of the coming war.

This whole ugly business came right after Bush had turned his fire on 
Germany's just re-elected Chancellor Gerhard Schroder for refusing to 
join the anti-Iraq mob.

Hitler comparison

Bush was sizzling mad - and rightly so - after one of Schroder's 
running mates stupidly compared Bush's tactics over Iraq to Hitler's. 
But this came after the White House and U.S. ambassador clumsily 
interfered in Germany's election by openly backing the conservative 
candidate, Edmund Stoiber, something close allies do not do.

Schroder won an uphill election campaign, largely by refusing to join 
Bush's jihad against Iraq, a position supported by two-thirds of 
German voters. Bush furiously accused Schroder of "playing politics" 
over Iraq.

Lucky for Americans Bush wasn't playing politics over Iraq. With 
mid-term U.S. elections only five weeks away, no decent person would 
dare accuse Bush of trying to whip up war fever to distract American 
voters from the looming U.S. $157 billion deficit he created, 
collapsing stocks, or serial Wall Street scandals and a possible 
second recession.

Bush refused to even congratulate Schroder on his victory and had 
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accuse the Chancellor of 
"poisoning" U.S.-German relations. What ever happened to Powell, who 
is supposed to deal with diplomatic affairs?

The Germans, in the White House view, are not being sufficiently 
warlike. So what if the Germans had 4.2 million dead in two world 
wars (America lost 418,000), that's no reason for them to be such 
Euro-wimps.

Germans and Americans seem to have switched stereotypes: it's now 
Germans who are peace-loving, while Bush's recently declared America 
Uber Alles strategy reeks of old, aggressive Teutonic geopolitics.

Delusions of grandeur

Washington has long urged Europe to act like a true partner. But 
whenever Europeans dare disagree with U.S. policy, they get blasted 
by the U.S. government and media for insubordination and accused of 
delusions of grandeur.

In reality, Europe, in the words of master strategist Zib Brzezinski, 
"remains largely an American protectorate, with its allied states 
reminiscent of ancient vassal and tributaries." Now, for the first 
time since WWII, Germany has openly defied Washington, to the delight 
of most Europeans. Schroder did this to save his political hide, but 
the effect is still highly significant: a cannon shot that could 
announce Europe's coming of age. Germany has been forced to accept 
the role of a paroled criminal ever since 1945. It's now time for 
Germany, tightly bound to France, and within the framework of the EU, 
to begin asserting its rights as a sovereign nation that has fully 
paid its debt for WWII.

Bush calls for democracy around the globe, but his spiteful criticism 
of Germany is just another example of the occasional anti-democratic 
tendencies that course through his administration.

German voters have spoken. Bush's clumsy efforts to punish Germans 
for opposing a war seen around the globe as unjust and unnecessary 
have further inflamed European opinion against his government and 
damaged America's strategic interests and reputation in Europe.

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Eric can be reached by e-mail at margolis@foreigncorrespondent.com.
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com or visit 
his home page.

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