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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@earthlink.net
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October 9,
2002
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