Bush in 30 Seconds

Yesterday, Spain’s newly elected prime minister indicated that he would remove the 1,300 Spanish troops from the Iraqi conflict, and remove Spain from Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing.” Within minutes, the conservative Americans began leaping to the attack on the Spanish, and President Bush himself this morning called the Spanish people “cowards” on national television. Pundits ranging from Bill O’Reilly to the Wall Street Journal have heaped the blame on Al’Qaeda for changing “the mind” of the Spanish people and the Spanish government so quickly.

But are Al’Qaeda really to blame here?

Prior to the election, the Spanish people were so rigidly against the war, it was unlikely that a pro-Iraq war government would be installed. The prime-minister elect of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, actively campaigned on a promise to remove Spanish troops. Polls within the Spanish public were heavily opposed to the fawning approach of the current prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar. In most publications in Spain, public opinion was heavily against Bush, reflecting most European nations’ bias.

So when the bombs blew up 200 Spanish citizens and wounded thousands more – had the election occurred just a week earlier, the same response might have happened. And it is likely that Spain’s ruling government would not have blamed the Basque separatist movement – when it was fairly obvious from the beginning which group and which cause has blown up metropolitan arenas in such fashions.

It’s fascinating how people can change their tune so quickly, too. Instead of offering support and solace to the Spanish people, Bush called them a nation of cowards– one step away from Janitor Willie from The Simpsons screaming, “Bonjour, ya cheese-eating surrender monkeys!” to a nation who have not yet had the chance to bury the dead. And he wonders, each time that he travels to a nation NOT within the United States, why the rest of the world hates “us?”

The answer, of course, is that the rest of the world hates him, and thus Americans by proxy. The man who’s all hat and no cows has invited Canada’s prime minister to visit his Crawford ranch, and can’t quite understand why the Canadian won’t take him up on the offer. Well, that’s not much of a surprise – with the turbulence of the Canadian political arena and the general hatred of George Bush and Dick Cheney in our neighbor to the north, no Canadian politician is going to associate with a man whom 85% of the Canadian public think is a bad leader.

What amazes me is that American politicians still don’t get it. The United States does not set the tone for the rest of the world. In the 90s, the United States did things faster, cleaner, and better than most other nations. Now it’s a nation struggling not to get left behind. The War on Terror is perhaps the world’s biggest folly, perpetrated by one of the most ignorant administrations in the history of any country at any time, and THAT is what’s being reflected in the world view.

The bombings in Spain are the European version of September 11, 2001, and it’s astounding that the same sympathy that was extended to the United States has been brushed aside by the Bush administration as “weakness in the face of the terrorist threat.” And even as the Bush administration critiques Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry for saying that many world leaders desperately want Bush out of office, the realities of corruption, graft, greed, and spin from the Bush administration keep piliing up.

One cannot support education and shift the tax burden for its improvement to the state governments, then claim to have improved education for the citizens of the United States. One cannot declare a “War” without a specific target. One cannot feed the former friends in Texas indefinitely without getting a bite or two from the greedy dogs of Texan commerce.

What homeowner would keep a roofing contractor on the payroll when they KNOW he’s been overcharging on labor and materials – THEN add him to five more roofing contracts for friends, neighbors, and family? Apparently the Bush administration feels that Halliburton is just the type of contractor they like – and to hell with the evidence that Halliburton has been stealing from the American taxpayer. The reconstruction work in Iraq, expected to last well through the next four years, is being overbid by the Texas company, and the costs keep spiraling. The complaints from the troops in the field show a very different story – while a slick ad campaign intended to bolster Halliburton’s image at home shows cheeseburgers being fed to grateful troops in the field, the reality is, troops in Iraq are being fed the equivalent of gruel and expected to live in squalor – provided by Halliburton’s contractors and subcontractors. Kickbacks have been taken by employees totaling $6.2 million – initially denied by the company, then admitted.

A congratulations to the new prime minister of Spain won’t accomplish anything in the short or the long run. Kerry’s assertion that he’s the only real choice for the nation and for the rest of the world is being borne out by the events and actions of the Bush team. It’s corruption at the top level; and it’s growing exponentially by the day. Bush has to go – peacefully, or quietly, but the real regime change has to begin in the United States – in the removal of a man who’s literally all hat and no cows.