Glimpses of the future and neocon visions of sugarplum faeries

Is America Burning? ~ Dada

Last night before retiring, I read an article by Paul Craig Roberts entitled Nuking Iran. Roberts was Assistant Secretary of Treasury in the Reagan Administration. I was pretty sure by the title of his article I shouldn't be reading it, especially so close to lights out. I should probably have watched "Survivor" or "American Idol" instead, but I'm not sure if they were on. Besides, I guess I just like a challenge to a good night's sleep and "Nuking Iran" sounded disturbing enough to fill that bill.

In his article, Roberts talked about John Bolton, our ambassador to the United Nations. I'm sure most of you remember him. He's the guy that congress would not confirm for that job, so while congress was out of town, president Bush did what he norrmally does with anything he wants badly enough but is denied. He steals it. Thus, he gave Bolton the job through a "recess appointment."

Recess appointments illustrate a weakness in the laws that Bush exploits to cement his leadership against the will of the people. It's like the 750 times he's employed "signing statements" he's attached to some bill or other. Signing statements exclude the president from adhering to a bill he's just signed into law before cameras. It's the part he adds after the camera's are off, the ceremony's over and all the congress people have left the room that he adds to the bill exempting Bush from the law he's just signed into effect.

Well, as Roberts notes in his article, on June 9th Bolton told the Financial Times, "the Bush regime has no intention of reaching an agreement with Iran. Time is running out for diplomacy." It was at that point I wondered what the hell Bolton was talking about. If the global Bush bullies have already decided war with Iran is going down, who the fuck needs diplomacy, and of what value is time? If, as Bolton says, we have no intention of reaching an agreement with Iran, what the hell is he talking about? Is this just another public relations snow job we hope the world will swallow to show we went the extra mile to avoid war?

But according to Bolton, the decision to bomb Iran appears carved in stone. Following the same tack we took with Iraq, the Bush administration is now "greasing us" for the same thing in Iran. Only this time, Roberts' article assures us, we're going to use tactical nukes and he doesn't think the Japanese, having been the only other recipient's of our nuclear "diplomacy," will continue to float our huge debts by purchasing endless sums of our treasury bonds to support such hubris.

It was a short read, worthy of one's time. And surprisingly, it didn't affect my sleep! But I did awaken this morning thinking about it.

I began wondering if the horrendous hit the US stock market has taken in recent weeks is the beginning of the hit that seems inevitable when you finance your hubris and support your materialism by running up America's national credit card debt beyond all sustainable limits. Sooner or later, we're going to get called on it. Our supporters, out of fear of losing on the huge investments made to brace up our economy, are going to get real jittery, real fast. Maybe this latest stock market plunge presages that inevitability. Millions of Americans who faithfully sock away a portion of their paychecks into 401-K's and IRA's would be shocked to know how much the value of their thrift has been pummeled in recent weeks.

Or maybe this isn't the beginning of that. Not yet. Maybe it will take a nuclear detonation or two in Iran to finally shake our world backers into the realization that the US has finally crossed the line.

And then I read this morning's paper that had been lying out on the driveway just moments earlier. In the much anticipated World Cup Soccer tournament, the US had lost its opening game to The Czech Republic. Apparently we were embarrassed, losing 3-0. And I wondered if maybe we were humbled a little more often, perhaps we wouldn't be so damned audacious. Maybe we as a nation wouldn't be so easily capable of waging wars on others with little or no hint of sacrifice from ourselves. Maybe if made to sacrifice, to pay as we go for our policies of global hubris, we might not be quite so arrogant.

Later, as I was mowing the front yard, I thought about Pony, our greyhound whom we lost two weeks ago today. I looked into the window, to the low sill that always cradled her little face staring back at me as I worked just inches away outside. And for one of the rare moments since her departure, I was glad. Not just because her suffering had ended. But glad because she didn't know about, nor have to concern herself with the last days of the American Empire. And that made me happy. At the end, she had enough to concern herself with. She didn't need the arrogance of bullies like Bolton and Bush.

I remembered a scene from the movie, "Catch 22." It was a conversation between a young American World War II pilot, Nately, and an old Italian man in a whorehouse. And I thought about the US today in Afghanistan, and Iraq, and perhaps soon-to-be Iran. In the movie, the old Italian was trying to relate to the young American pilot who was part of the forces occupying the Italian's conquered homeland, that all wasn't quite as it seemed to its conquerors, the Americans.

It went something like this:

OLD MAN: 'America,' he said, 'will lose this war. And Italy will win it.'

NATELY: 'America is the strongest and most prosperous nation on earth. And the American fighting man is second to none.'

OLD MAN: 'Exactly. Italy on the other hand is one of the least prosperous nations on earth and the Italian fighting man is probably second to all. And that's exactly why my country is doing so well in this war and your country is doing so poorly.'

NATELY: 'I'm sorry I laughed at you, but Italy was being occupied by Germany and is now being occupied by us. You don't call that doing very well, do you?'

OLD MAN: 'But of course I do. The Germans are being driven out, but we are still here. In a few years you will be gone too, but we will still be here. You see, Italy is a very poor and weak country, and that's what makes us so strong....I call that doing extremely well. Yes, I am quite certain that Italy will survive this war and still be in existence long after your own country has been destroyed.'

Nately could scarcely believe his ears. He had never heard such shocking blasphemies before, and he wondered with instinctive logic why G-men did not appear to lock the traitorous old man up.

NATELY: 'America isn't going to be destroyed!' he shouted passionately.

OLD MAN: 'Never?' prodded the old man softly.

NATELY: 'Well...' Nately faltered.

The old man laughed indulgently, holding in check a deeper, more explosive delight. His goading remained gentle.

OLD MAN: 'Rome was destroyed, Greece was destroyed, Persia was destroyed, Spain was destroyed. All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? How much longer do you really think your own country will last? Forever? Keep in mind the earth itself is destined to be destroyed by the sun in twenty-five million years or so.'

But remembering those lines from Catch 22, I then thought of Noam Chomsky's latest book, Failed States : The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy wherein Chomsky delineates our failings while continuing to maintain our "right" to intervene in the affairs of other's while our own nation is crumbling.

And with the anniversary of our birth, the Fourth of July, still more than a couple weeks away, and the House just today tossing another $66 billion dollars we don't have on the flames of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, one has to wonder if America hasn't lit its own fuse to the real fireworks that lie just ahead.