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Bush's Fascist Plan for America Is Coming Unraveled
(Paul Krugman, New York Times, March 23, 2004)
The Bush administration "dropped a shroud of secrecy" over the federal government. . . . Ari Fleischer ominously warned, "need to watch what they say, watch what they do." Patriotic citizens were supposed to accept the administration's version of events, not ask awkward questions. . . . But something remarkable has been happening lately: more and more insiders are finding the courage to reveal the truth . . . how risky it is to reveal awkward truths about the Bush administration. When Gen. Eric Shinseki told Congress that postwar Iraq would require a large occupation force, that was the end of his military career. When Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV revealed that the 2003 State of the Union speech contained information known to be false, someone in the White House destroyed his wife's career by revealing that she was a C.I.A. operative. And we now know that Richard Foster, the Medicare system's chief actuary, was threatened with dismissal if he revealed to Congress the likely cost of the administration's prescription drug plan. . . . On "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Mr. Clarke said the previously unsayable: that Mr. Bush, the self-proclaimed "war president," had "done a terrible job on the war against terrorism." After a few hours of shocked silence, the character assassination began. . . . Of course, Bush officials have to attack Mr. Clarke's character because there is plenty of independent evidence confirming the thrust of his charges. . . . Not only did John Ashcroft completely drop terrorism as a priority, it wasn't even mentioned in his list of seven "strategic goals" just one day before 9/11 he proposed a reduction in counterterrorism funds. . . . After 9/11 the F.B.I. requested $1.5 billion for counterterrorism operations, but the White House slashed this by two-thirds. (Meanwhile, the Bush campaign has been attacking John Kerry because he once voted for a small cut in intelligence funds.) . . . In November 2001 a bipartisan delegation urged the president to spend about $10 billion on top-security priorities like ports and nuclear sites. But Mr. Bush flatly refused. . . . "From the very first moments after Sept. 11," Kenneth Pollack told "Frontline," "there was a group of people, both inside and outside the administration, who believed that the war on terrorism . . . should target Iraq first." Mr. Clarke simply adds more detail. . . . Still, the administration would like you to think that Mr. Clarke had base motives in writing his book. But given the hawks' dominance of the best-seller lists until last fall, it's unlikely that he wrote it for the money. Given the assumption by most political pundits, until very recently, that Mr. Bush was guaranteed re-election, it's unlikely that he wrote it in the hopes of getting a political job. And given the Bush administration's penchant for punishing its critics, he must have known that he was taking a huge personal risk. . . . So why did he write it? How about this: Maybe he just wanted the public to know the truth.

[COMMENT: Any objective observer (whose life isn't dominated by fear) can see that Bush and his merry band of evil doers have almost completely destroyed the dream of freedom this nation was built upon. This is not the same nation that my father served in uniform during World War II. And this is not the country that I served in uniform during America's war on Viet Nam. At least then We the People could still turn out into the streets and force change. Today, under the Cheney-Bush junta, people are afraid to express their true feelings and speak the truth for fear of being branded a traitor for not following the Bush Family/Saudi Family/Bin Laden family/Israeli line. (And yes, those people are deeply interconnected.) The USA is in the process of becoming another Palestine. Pressure is building on the good people of this nation. A moment of truth cannot be far away.]

posted by LoZo 5:58 AM