Congratulations! It's a War!

[Mike Friedman <mikedf@xxxxxxxx>]

CounterPunch

October 12, 2002

Congratulations! It's a War!
by BEN TRIPP

We all knew how the vote would go. Christmas has come early, and only for
one man: George W. Bush has the authority to declare war.

The House and Senate have passed a resolution to allow President locum
tenens Bush to start a war whenever he feels like it, with only one caveat:
he must be pretty sure he wants to do so. Once again, our Great Nation's
leaders have proven themselves to be callow, pandering, shameless,
self-gratifying, bellicose, reactionary and vindictive. Our Congress
demonstrates that it is a senile psychotic, fondling flaccid genitals
through swollen diapers in the corner of a filth-smeared cell and begging
with toothless whines for another dose of medication from the smirking
wardens who spit through the bars in the door, chuckling like tourists at
the zoo watching the monkey piss in its own face-as the saying goes.

Our representatives' pathetic failure as human beings and leaders has led
us to this pass: even if we never march to war against any nation, America
has still abandoned the single greatest fundament of world peace: never
strike first. To the international community, this resolution is the
equivalent of handing an agitated four-year-old child a pistol and warning
him not to pull the trigger unless he has a good reason to do it. A child
who has stated in no uncertain terms he intends to shoot people. A child
with a history of antisocial behavior, a child prone to tantrums, a child
with undiagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder. This is what America became today.

Am I upset? Just a little, but I may get more upset when the Phencyclidine
wears off. After all, Democracy in this land has been eviscerated before,
always (but not exclusively) during times of war. I doubt not I would have
been upset when we rounded up all the Japanese-Americans and put them in
concentration camps in the central Californian desert. I probably would
have been rounded up myself during the lazy, hazy, crazy days of the
Sedition Act of 1918, stuffed in a cell with a bunch of dreary Quakers.
James Madison, who was no peacenik, said that "Of all the enemies to public
liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and
develops the germ of every other." Of course when James Madison was still
frisking about, stupidity had not yet risen to eclipse all other perils.
But the instrument of war has now been placed in the hands of the stupid,
so la pointe c'est moot.

Why is this so awful? At least it will settle Bush down, one way or the
other. Let him wage war, if it means he'll stop trying to cut down the
forests, arrest all the cancer victims who smoke cheeba, and take away a
woman's right to choose. I'll tell you what the problem is. (You didn't
think I wouldn't, did you?) While the halls of government ring with
preposterous speeches about despots who compulsively hate our freedoms and
attractive lifestyle, our real enemies are gathering strength, and our
allies are growing weak. When we scoff at the UN, however wretched that
body may be, we rob it of the blunt, peg-like teeth necessary to enforce
world peace and diplomatic aims. When we threaten to attack sovereign
nations, however stinky, we are breeding terrorists out of the young men
who know they cannot win, except by suicidal vigilante actions. When the
United States announces by resolutions such as the one passed today in the
Senate that it intends to do whatever its President damn well pleases,
despite its own citizens, despite the Constitution, despite the world, even
despite the lessons of history and the legacy of the future, one cannot
help but say, "oy".

But there's a bigger problem than that, even. Bush subverted our election.
He subverted our prosperity. He subverted our freedoms. And now he has
subverted, with the help of a couple hundred Democrats, the entire
government-- all three branches on the withered, leafless tree. The
coronation is complete. How could the Democrats in Congress allow this to
happen, to give up their authority in the ultimate matter of national
affairs, the right to declare war? That's a silly question. I'm
embarrassed. There's a midterm election coming, and it could be the most
important midterm election in modern times: if the Democrats don't prevail
in the House and Senate, and the Republicans take control, then George W.
Bush will have absolute power, a power he has demonstrated a thirst to use
for outrageously narrow interests. The Democrats calculate if they appear
to be tough and brave, like the Republican chickenhawks, the Republicans
will have nothing to run against- after all, the Democrats are already
favored on the economy and domestic matters. So to show they're powerful,
the Democrats support handing Bush the power to wage war. But wait! Doesn't
that mean he now has absolute power? Oops.

And now, dear reader (including my pals at the Justice Department who are
compiling a lively dossier even as we speak), we come to the final
Catch-22. On this vote, the Democrats in Congress were damned if they did,
and damned if they didn't. They voted for this resolution and are damned.
But now how will you react? There's a vote right around the corner for you,
too. Will you vote your Democrat out of office for the shivering,
lickspittle cur he or she has become, a vote of disgust at the spectacle of
your elected representative snuffling at the crotch of the scornful master
as the world is plunged into chaos? Or will you do exactly what your
elected representative did, abandon your principles, and vote for the
status quo rather than risk a repeat of the election of 2000?

I leave you with that thought, to go hang myself on my representative's lawn.

Ben Tripp is a screenwriter. He can be reached at: credel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



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