The Last Cowardice
By Ramon Labanino Salazar
The big bourgeois press surprised us last 27 November with a special Thanksgiving Day "present". The super secret flash trip of the illegitimate President George W. Bush to Iraqi soil. A simple objective analysis would show us that there is very little heroics in this new adventure, more in keeping with a low-brow Hollywood comedy than with real life.
It so happens that the President of the most powerful nation in the world, with the most destructive and fearsome Armed Forces, with an extremely costly Intelligence Service and with a highly sophisticated security system has to don a baseball cap and travel at night to share a few moments with a very tight group of chosen invaders, gulp down some turkey slices and swiftly turn back – under the same super-secret conditions- from a small, empoverished country like Iraq, which allegedly should be under control. The sheer cowardice of this act is apparent and sends out a very negative message.
If the purpose was to boost the invading troops’ morale the result may very well have been the opposite. What can an average US soldier think now? Well, he will be right in fearing for his life, since his own President is afraid to pay a fleeting visit to that rebel territory.
A day will come when the morale of the invading army will sink beneath the ruins of Babylon in the desert sands.
If George Bush’s trip is to be seen as an electioneering antic, nothing could have been more appropiate to achieve a negative image. What rational voter would cast his ballot for such a clown!
One of the first things George W. Bush should do now is to fire the advisor who suggested the trip. He has no worse enemies among his acolytes than those who give him such poor advice.
If a respectable image was to be sought he should have announced his travel plans with sufficient notice and arrived there in broad day-light, stood at the head of his own combat troops and led them on-site. That is what a true President and a dignified Commander-in-Chief would do. But that would be too much to ask in times when cowardice and stupidity are presented as heroic deeds.
The people of the United States need and deserve a dignified and courageous President, a real Commander-in-Chief with decorum and honour. That is the least that can be expected from their leaders. It is time to expel Bush and his troupe in 2004 and put an end to the destruction, the killing, the wars and instability that this atrocious Administration generates.
Let us hope that this comes to pass while being on the look-out to prevent the tricks and frauds that gave George Bush an illegitimate victory in 2000 from happening again.
We look forward to the day when the people of the United States receive the best ever Thanksgiving present: the cleansing of the White House and the elevation of a real President worthy of his people, his nation and the world.
You, the people, can do it!
United we shall overcome!