The Ehrlich Report

Today when the polls indicate that approximately 70 per cent of Americans would like to see an end to the war and a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, the President has declared his intent to send more soldiers to Iraq. It is unlikely that George Bush has any serious understanding of the meaning of democracy. War is as far from a democratic spirit as you can get.

Because of my membership in the punditocracy, I am frequently asked “Why?” Why is Bush acting as he is. Here’s my answer. First of all, he is on a mission from God. Recall that during his first term he told us, “God is at my wrist.” What he didn’t say was that Capital was on his other wrist. Here Capital means the major energy and industrial companies, at least as far as the Middle East goes, but also, more fully, all of those institutions that support the accumulation of wealth by the rich and the subordination of the poor. The President and his supporters are trying to build a Christian Capitalist Empire, and those who do not fit in that box are expendable.

Mr. Bush having been raised with the privileges and comforts of wealth has no sense of what it is to be poor or even middle class. I think he does not comprehend class differences other than being well-aware of who has the power. After all, he is “The Decider.”

The President is profoundly anti-intellectual. His attacks on scientists and scientific research are a case in point. To the extent that the pursuit of knowledge has value to him, it is only as a bulwark of what he already knows to be true. The “No Child Left Behind” act has become (I think by intent) a mechanism for the control of what gets taught in schools and how it gets taught. He pontificated shortly after his election,”Rarely is the question asked: is our children learning.” But for him “learning” is the production of disciplined learners who can move on to the community colleges to fulfill the “need for a certain kind of worker.”

At a psychological level, Bush has been diagnosed by some as a sociopath. Such persons are characterized primarily by an antisocial egocentrism and an inability to empathize with others. At a political level you can see the manifestations of these characteristics. His policies have resulted in the spread of terrorist groups across the Middle East and the death and injury of hundreds of thousands of people and even more made refugees. His administration has wasted billions of dollars by contracting with corrupt American firms and by funneling money to Iraqi officials and, through them, to the terrorist groups themselves. One third of rebuilding contracts in Iraq are under criminal investigation.

He has provoked the dispersion of new nuclear weapons in North Korea and their threat in Iran. At the same time he has ordered the design and production of new nuclear weapons. And he has approved the use of depleted uranium weapons, the effects of which are only now beginning to be manifest.

The funding of this new “surge” of American troops will doubtless result in even more deaths. Chicago Tribune columnist, Steve Chapman, reports that in a recent poll 92 percent of Sunnis and 62 percent of Shiites approve of attacks on American military. Both groups favor the removal of the American occupiers by mid-year. Counting all deaths of Iraqis (and I use the figure of 500,000) it appears that the United States has spent close to one million dollars for every Iraqi killed.

Regrettably, it is too easy to compile a catalog of the acts this American axis of evil has performed or directed.. There are 738 days (from Martin Luther King’s birthday) before George Bush leaves office. Until then, the progressive community must maintain hope. As Ghandi reminded his people,”Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.”