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   From: oO@oO.com   
      
   America is Not God   
      
   Bush's Delusional Speech   
      
   By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS   
      
   In Cleveland yesterday Bush gave a delusional speech that shows he is   
   detached from reality. "We're going to help the Iraqis build a strong   
   democracy that will be an inspiration throughout the Middle East, a   
   democracy that'll be a partner in the global war against the terrorists."   
      
   Has no one told Bush that the Iraqis cannot even agree to form a government?   
      
   The day before Bush's delusional Cleveland speech, Iyad Allawi, the former   
   prime minister of one of our make-believe Iraqi governments, said that in   
   Iraq the casualty rate from the sectarian strife is so high that "if this is   
   not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."   
      
   The day of Bush's delusional speech, Patrick Cockburn, present on the scene   
   in Irbil, Iraq, gave a much more truthful account of the situation. Writing   
   here in CounterPunch, he reported: "Iraq is a country convulsed by fear. It   
   is at its worst in Baghdad. Sectarian killings are commonplace. . . . The   
   scale of the violence is such that most of it is unreported. . . . Unseen by   
   the outside world, silent populations are on the move, frightened people   
   fleeing neighborhoods where their community is in a minority for safer   
   districts. There is also a growing reliance on militias because of fears   
   that police patrols or checkpoints are in reality death squads hunting for   
   victims."   
      
   Not a word of this reality from our delusional president.   
      
   The fantasy Iraq that Bush painted was only his warm-up. He went on to tell   
   his Cleveland audience that American could not be safe unless Iraq was a   
   democracy. What a weak, pitiful, vulnerable place Bush's America must be.   
   Unless a small, devastated Middle Eastern country is a democracy, America   
   cannot be safe. Who in the Cleveland audience could possibly have believed   
   this utter nonsense.   
      
   Bush told his audience that "the security of our country is directly linked   
   to the liberty of the Iraqi people, and we will settle for nothing less than   
   victory." What victory is he talking about? Despite the huge sums of dollars   
   paid by the Bush regime to all the leaders of all the factions, Iraq cannot   
   form a government.   
      
   Without victory, Iraq will be "a safe haven for terrorists to plot new   
   attacks against our nation." Alas, there were no terrorists in Iraq until   
   Bush invaded the country and drew them in. The problem our troops face in   
   Iraq is not terrorists, but resistance fighters, "insurgents" in the Bush   
   regime's parlance. Democracies lack the dictatorial, extra-legal powers to   
   suppress terrorists. That is why Bush is destroying civil liberties in the   
   US. Under Saddam Hussein, there were no terrorists and no insurgents. Bush   
   is modeling his no habeas corpus, torture prone, all intrusive government on   
   Saddam Hussein.   
      
   The security of Americans has nothing whatsoever to do with Iraq. Iraq   
   cannot overthrow the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the separation of   
   powers, and American civil liberties. Iraq cannot illegally spy on American   
   citizens, declare them to be "suspects" and detain them forever without   
   warrant or charges. Iraq cannot put American critics of the Bush regime on   
   "no-fly" lists.   
      
   The real dangers to Americans reside in the neocon Bush administration. This   
   delusional warmonger administration believes it has the power and the right   
   to dictate to Muslim countries their political and social institutions. This   
   extraordinary arrogance and hubris breeds opposition where there was none.   
   The world is not going to obey Bush and a handful of stupid neocons.   
      
   In his speech Bush told Cleveland that "the decision to remove Saddam   
   Hussein was a difficult decision." That is a lie. Bush's Treasury Secretary,   
   Paul O'Neill, and a number of others have reported that Bush came into   
   office intending to remove Hussein. The head of British intelligence told   
   the British Cabinet that Bush first decided to go to war and then created   
   the reasons to justify his aggression against Iraq.   
      
   "Before we acted," Bush told his audience, Hussein's "regime was defying   
   U.N. resolutions calling for it to disarm. It was violating cease-fire   
   agreements, was firing on American and British pilots which were enforcing   
   no-fly zones." Gentle reader, think what Bush is saying. As Iraq had no   
   weapons of mass destruction, a fact that Bush has acknowledged, how could   
   Iraq possibly have been violating U.N. resolutions calling on it to disarm?   
      
   What cease-fire agreements are Bush talking about? It was US and UK planes   
   that continued to fly over Iraqi territory and bomb Iraqis.   
      
   Do you know what Bush means by no-fly zones? He means that US and UK jet   
   fighters could fly all over Iraq, but if Iraqi planes flew over Iraqi   
   territory, we would shoot them down.   
      
   Where did the US get the right to tell countries that they dare not try to   
   control their own air space?   
      
   Americans need to understand that terrorists are responding to America's   
   behavior, or misbehavior. The only successful way to stop terrorism is to   
   alter our behavior. America is not God. It has no right, and it certainly   
   lacks the power, to impose its will on the world.   
      
   The Bush regime cannot lead the world to democracy by tearing democracy down   
   at home. Not since Abraham Lincoln have American civil liberties been so   
   threatened as by the Bush regime. America even has an Attorney General, a   
   Vice President, and a Secretary of Defense who believe in torture. How do   
   they differ from officials in the Third Reich or Stalin's KGB? Anyone who   
   believes in torture is not an American. That person is outside our   
   tradition. Yet, it is people who believe in torture who occupy our highest   
   offices.   
      
   Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan   
   administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial   
   page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The   
   Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)