October 5, 2002- Another Campaign Season

In my last column, I wrote about the campaign season currently under way in the USA, namely, the political one. But, there is another campaign season going on right about now, one that has every bit as much importance as the political one, maybe even more. This campaign is the war campaign, specifically, the impending war against Iraq. This is a campaign that is being fought more fiercely than any of the political ones by those that are all for it, like the President. He has done almost nothing except push for this war everywhere he goes and in everything that he says. In speech after speech after speech, he has gone on about how evil Saddam Hussein is, and why he needs to be removed from power. Bush has been counting on the unwavering support from the American people, the support that he has had for virtually everything that he has said or done since September 11, 2001. At first, it seemed as if he was getting that same type of support on this issue as well. Saddam Hussein has been evil incarnate in the eyes of the American public for a long time now, specifically ever since August 2, 1990, when he invaded Kuwait, and drew the ire of the current President's father, who was the first American leader to brand Saddam as evil. So, Hussein has not been seen in a good light in the eyes of the American people for many a year. So when the current President followed the example of his father and said that Saddam was indeed evil incarnate and had to be deposed, many of the American people did not quibble with that, because they knew that they were dealing with a bad guy from before. So they supported the current President just like they did his father back in the early 90's. At that time, it seemed like an easy thing for Bush junior to do, go to war with Iraq again. But then, things started to change. The American people started to look at this issue long and hard, and when they did, they started to see a different story than the one that the White House and the Pentagon was putting out. They started to see that what Bush was wanting to do was to start another separate war when America was already embroiled up to its teeth in the War On Terrorism. They saw that there was no clear connection between these two wars, except that Bush wanted to avenge his father's honor in Iraq. They saw no need to put further Americans in harm's way just for the sake of the President's family's ego. They started to see that George W was not the invincible leader that he made himself out to be, he was in fact a politician just like his old man and all the rest of them. They saw that he wanted to go to war against Saddam for personal reasons, not reasons of national; safety like he said. Then, they started to question going to war against him again. This movement has been gaining speed for a while now, and is becoming more and more vocal. We have actually been seeing coverage of this point of view on the news shows across America. Even high-profile social leaders like Jesse Jackson have been going on about this lately. So the President has had to make like the politician that he was raised to be and start a campaign. A campaign to start a campaign of war. And that is what George W has been doing lately, campaigning like a motherfucker. He has not even been campaigning for the politicians of his own party that are trying to be re elected anywhere near as hard as he is campaigning for this war. He seems not to care if the politicians of his own party get re elected or not, he just wants that war more than anything. And he is doing whatever he can think of to get it too. He has gone everywhere from the state fairs of America to the united nations campaigning for this war. He has produced "evidence" that he says shows why we need to go to this war. Just what that evidence actually is, nobody knows. It has been deemed to be "classified" and in this time of war, that means that this information is for certain eyes only, and those eyes do not include the American media or public. We are just supposed to take the word of Bush and his cronies that there are all sorts of ties between Saddam and those that attacked America in 2001. Even though everyone that knows even a little bit about these things say that this is bullshit, Bush persists with it. He is insistent that this is so, no matter what anyone might say. He has even made America's allies, l;ike Britain, buy into this shit, by saying that they too have this "evidence". It's funny how they will only present bits and pieces of the evidence, just like America does, even though Britain was not at war. However, Bush intends to change that, he intends to change that for a lot of countries. He wants all of America's allies to support him like they supported his old man back in the day. His campaign is not a local or regional or even a national one like those of the politicians this fall. No, his is a worldwide campaign to rid the world of evil in the names of God and Jesus Christ. It is like a quest for him, a Holy undertaking. Yes, George W seems to think that he is the man that can help straighten out the world, all he needs to do that is unequivocal support of all civilized nations and no opposition from any of them on anything, and he can accomplish this. That is the campaign that Bush is on, a one-issue campaign season for him. Even though it seems like it, avenging his daddy is not the only reason that Bush is on this campaign.

There are other reasons, as well. Most of them have to do with his and his daddy's friends, specifically, Mr. Businessman. George W wants to make damn sure that the right dudes in this scene make the right amounts of money. Since our current president was raised in the aristocracy like he was, he was told the main reason that almost every war is fought, and that is to make some people a lot of fuckin' money, and make it fast. George W sat at the knee of many a rich and powerful businessman that hung out over at his house, and heard many a tale of how they got that way. I imagine that he was never one for the typical kid stories when he was growing up, he would rather hear about capitalist success stories any day. In many of these stories that he heard, there was a common thread. He heard about how many of these businessmen made themselves very rich by profiting off of war, especially the Vietnam War, because that was the one going on when George W was growing up. Even though he was part of generation where many of his peers were sickened and appalled by the war and what it was bringing to America, Geoirge W was told other sides of the story. He was shown how raggedy these fuckin' hippies and peace freaks were, showing that they obviously had no money. George W Was horrified at that thought. No money? However do they live? Since he was brought up in the lap of luxury, George W Bush only knew the finest that the capitalist system had to offer. When he saw these freaks protesting against Mr. Businessman and his ways, he saw them protesting against that cool friend of his dad's that brought him some neat toys when he came to dinner and shit, the guy that played baseball with him and showed him how to hit a curveball, etc. Yes, he knew that these guys were very rich, but he was taught that was a good thing, what we were all to strive for in our lives. George W was taught that money is everything. He was told that there was no shame in having it, no matter how you got it, just as long as you had it. There were no bad ways to earn money, George was taught. So when these business dudes came over and told the stories about how they made themselves rich by doing shit like marketing napalm and guns and hand grenades and Agent Orange, young George was told that there was nothing wrong with this, no matter what those peaceniks and other assorted freaks were saying to the contrary. After all, it was not them that had the country estate with the big swimming pool that George W and his pals went swimming in, was it? Also, George was taught that his very own father made his way by doing many of the same things that these business dudes did. Since he was a politician, he was the one that greased the skids so that the businessmen had it made easier for them to do their shit. Since he was running the CIA during the Vietnam war, George Bush Senior was able to send in all sorts of special operative troops and keep the war going so that his pals in the business world were able to make ever more money by manufacturing more napalm and Agent Orange and bullets and shit. That way, his pals were making money hand over fist, even though the war was a tactical failure and America was destined to lose it. The only reason that they did not lose it before they did was because Mr. Businessman was making money off of it, and that war was not one where America's national security was at stake, so who gave a fuck if America was losing it. It was a large enough country so that the loss of life would not de-populate it, and there was lots and lots and lots of fuckin' money to be made, so let it go was the attitude. The dudes that made money off of this sort of mentality were the ones that George W Bush was influenced by in his youth. Now, he is the President, and some of those very same dudes that used to come over to his dad's house stand to make more big money off of a war. There has not been much in the way of war in America ever since Vietnam ended in 1975. Mr. Businessman was happy to take his profits from that and choke on them, at least for a while. For after a while, the thrill of these profits started to wear off. There were no more mega profits rolling in, and Mr. Businessman started to get a bit antsy again. Especially when we went through the entire 1980's without a war to make these cats ever richer. Then , in the 1990's, we had the war against iraq, but that fucker was only a few weeks long, and there was not enough time for Mr. Businessman to make mega profits off of it. So, in his mind, he is hurting these days. He has had no chance to make mega dollars off of war for over 25 years now. But now he has, and George W is accommodating him on that. In fact, one of the real reasons that he wants to go to war against Saddam again is so there can be two wars going at once, and that gives his pals double the chances to make the money that they desire to make. What better way for them to make up for lost time than to have not just one, but two wars to profit off of. Ever since Bush has started talking about starting another war, the Pentagon has been doling out the money at a dizzying rate. Not they weren't ever since September, 2001, but they really have kicked it into high gear lately. They seem no longer content to dole out a mere one billion dollars a day, now they seem to want to dole out two or even three billion dollars a day. They say that the cost of waging war is high, but it is not that high. Every price for war is artificially inflated like crazy. The Pentagon is paying well over 1000% more than they should for everything. They are doing this to enrich those dudes that want to profit off of the war. That is how they make the windfall profits that they do from war, they are massively overpaid for everything. George W is well aware of this, and he wants to give the Pentagon every chance and then some to overpay everyone that is in line to be overpaid as much as they can possibly get away with, and that is one fuckin' considerable amount. This is why Bush wants to go to war against Iraq, every bit as much as to avenge his old man. He knows full well that his old man does not need any avenging, he did just fine for himself. Only his pride and massive Bush ego took a hurting, nothing else. But Junior knows that he can enrich his dad's friends further, and give them the profits that they need to get an even bigger place in the country with an even bigger pool to take the kids swimming in. Now it is George W's turn to do cool things for these friends of his family that have been cool to him in the past. Now he has the power to help make them profits like they have not seen in over 25 years, and maybe even ever. That is driving him in his campaign that he is on, his desire to help his dad's pals and their descendants. After all, if they don't watch out for each other, who will watch out for them? This is what Bush has on his mind, national security is just a premise to do this.