Fall Theater Preview: Bush Con American Tour '06

By Kanrei As we approach the next anniversary of the September 11th attacks of 2001, we know certain things are coming, and we look forward to none of them. We know that every news station will be ignoring any events that have the bad luck of falling on September 11th 2006 because “News” will be concentrating on the past instead. We know every politician is going to make heart wrenching speeches that appear on the surface to address the families, but are really more campaign speeches for the November elections. We also know that Bush, like clockwork will be giving his annual “I am not tying Iraq to 9-11, it is just coincidence I am starting my support campaign at this time again this year” tour. Bush’s past strategy for convincing America this war is a good thing has been as effective as his plans for the occupation of Iraq. He has gone on two ineffective tours so far, with a third starting this week. The past two tours, both around the time of bad poll numbers (another coincidence from a President who never looks at polls) focused on the positive that was occurring in Iraq. The November/ December ’05 Selling the Drama tour was to convince the American people that the war we won in 43 days was winnable 3 years later. I hear that a man will land on the moon in 1969 too. Then in March, series two started dealing mainly with the progress of the Iraqis. “(W)e saw the capability of the Iraqi security forces [and] the determination of many of Iraq’s leaders”. The nation’s answer to both these tours was a resounding “great, then bring the troops home.” This was not the answer Bush was hoping for, so he will have to go on tour number three just around the fifth anniversary of September 11th. Gee, what a great break in an election year that his party is favored to lose big in. August 31st marks the beginning of “Bush Con America Tour 06” and is kicking off at the annual American Legion convention in Utah and continues through around the middle of September. The reports are that this should be a hot show and tickets will be going fast. After negative reviews for the show’s trial run, Bush and company have reworked the entire script and are taking the story in a new direction they are sure will thrill audiences around the world. Of course it is fully possible that the show’s trial runs were the result of bad casting with Donald “Known Knowns” Rumsfeld in the starting roll. This tour they return to the headliner cast and promises to be more of a “downer” in terms of the emotional appeal, but that is what this 5 year anniversary election year tour calls for. According to the Wall Street Journal, Bush is “likely to talk more about the importance of winning and how the U.S. is adapting to the changing nature of the struggle against terrorism in Iraq and beyond”. Winning something already won; priceless irony. A senior administration official also said in the WSJ terrorism is on the minds of Americans, and as we go into the fifth anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks, it’s appropriate and necessary that the nation continue to hear about the state of the war and the nature of our enemy” Nothing like blurring the line between separate realities when it serves a larger purpose. Who cares if one has nothing to do with the other? In fact, it reminds me a little of that master of the lie Goebbels and his famous quote: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism until we overthrew Saddam. We left a power vacuum that Iran filled with their people. Now they are free to build all the nukes they want because they never feared us, they feared Saddam. They used us to take him out and Bush’s Oedipus fixation allowed him to do it. I mean the stupid neo-cons put their plans on the internet for all to see under P.N.A.C. The truly disgusting part is that none of this is Bush’s fault as usual. Just like no one expected the levies to break and no one expected planes to be used as missiles, this one has nothing to do with him either. Turns out that Bush is going to “remind” the American people that the day-to-day handling of this war is being run by the military and not him; it is their fault, not his. Kind of like me not giving you enough food or water and leaving you in the desert to find your way out and then I blame you for starving to death. He cares nothing for the troops. They are a distraction for him. They distract us from him and they distract the terrorists from America. We are not safe because of Iraq; he has just given them a closer target. He say so himself when he says that the “enemy will follow us home.” This president has “jumped the shark” long ago. His denial of reality is borderline psychotic in my untrained and completely amateur opinion. He is a third rate Baghdad Bob in his insistence that Iraq is a part of the war on terrorism. Bob was atleast funny. This is simply him trying to save face in the history books now. He does not want to be one of the few American presidents to lose a war after being the first one to start a pre-emptive one.