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It is time for Bush to Go
Posted September 29, 2004 thepeoplesvoice.org

By: Alexander Dawoody

In history, there are leaders who brought honor and dignity to humanity, such as Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, and the Mahatma Gandhi. However, George W. Bush stands in contrast to them and to all those who brought peace, justice and liberty to humanity. 

Bush will enter history as a president who used the organized violence of the state and America's military and economic might in order to destabilize the world, increase the wealth of the affluent and add to the suffering of the poor and the oppressed.

History will remember Bush as a leader that made America the target of hate and resentment in the world, a leader who caused the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis and Americans when he mislead the world with his claim about the so-called weapons of mass destruction in order to justify his war in Iraq. 

The world is a more dangerous place since Bush and his team of neoconservatives took over power in 2000. The peace process in the Middle East has collapsed completely. The price of oil has reached $50 per barrel. And, if it was not for the two extra million barrels of oil per day that the Saudis pumped to the United States to aid their friend in the White House, the U.S. economy would have collapsed. 

In Afghanistan, Bush promised to end the al-Qaeda network, liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban, and bring Bin Laden and Mullah Omar to justice. Today, Bin Laden and Mullah Omar are still free and regrouping their followers, and Afghanistan turned into a failed state governed by chaos and drug lords. The Taliban continues to grow, attacking and killing Americans. The al-Qaeda network is getting stronger and influencing changes in governmental policies. For example the U.S. responded to al-Qaeda's demand to pull its troops from Saudi Arabi. Spain responded likewise by pulling its troops from Iraq. Even the wartime president admitted in an interview on MSNBC with Matt Lauer on August 30, 2004 that he was losing the war on al-Qaeda.

In Iraq, after a year and a half of its occupation, the 150,000 U.S. troops are unable to protect themselves or the Iraqis that are collaborating with them. Instead, they are killing hundreds of Iraqi citizens on a daily basis, destroying homes, desecrating holy sites, bombing cities, and using sadistic and despicable torture against prisoners. The Bush administration unleashed all the savagery it could bring to bear on this poor country and justified its barbarism in the name of promoting democracy and freedom.

Bush said Iraq would be an oasis for democracy and human rights after the fall of Saddam's regime. This proved to be a lie similar to one about Saddam's WMD. Iraq under Bush is a country without security, clean water, electricity, or jobs. It is a country with appointed puppet government that has no effect beyond the so-called Green Zone in Baghdad. Instead, Iraq is ruled by chaos, car bombs, kidnapping and the daily beheading of hostages. So much for bush's oasis of liberation and democracy.

Despite all these catastrophes, Bush claims that he enjoyed doing what he did and if he had the chance, he would do it again. It seems that Bush is not satisfied with the blood baths that he created in Iraq and is looking forward to more wars. There is still Syria and Iran, and he wants another term to complete his agenda and satisfy the dreams of his oil backers and the gang of neoconservatives and right wing Christian fundamentalists. 

It is time for Bush and his team to go. Not only must Bush be out of power on January 20, 2005, but he must also be accountable for the unnecessary and unprovoked war that he had created and the damages and mayhem that he had caused. Bush must answer to the senseless deaths of 37,000 Iraqi civilians and over 1000 U.S. soldiers in an immoral and illegal war and for violating the international norms. 

Bush claims that his war in Iraq and capturing Saddam made America safer. If so, then we are still on orange alert? How did Saddam become a substitute for Bin Laden, the person responsible for 9/11? The fact remains that the war in Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or the war on terror. Rather, it was aimed at a weak enemy that its defeat provided economic gains for Bush's supporters.

Of course there are those who still defend Bush and consider his critics as liberals, socialists, unpatriotic or even traitors. They have the misguided illusion that they have a monopoly on patriotism and speak on behalf of America, to only allow those who cheer the emperor to speak. The emperor, however, has no clothes. And, no matter how much his right wing supporters try to blanket the truth, Americans will do the right thing on November 2, 2004. No amount of personal attacks can intimidate the public from speaking their conscious and voting for a change. 

Bush's win in November 2004 means the expansion of the war in Iraq to include Syria and Iran. It also means the reinstating of the draft, the continuous economic depravation of working Americans and further assault on their civil rights. Bush's win will institutionalize neoconservatism and right wing religious fundamentalists in order to make fear, war, economic deprivation, and police state normal parts of our lives. Big Brother will suspend what is left in our civil liberty in the name of fighting terrorism, the rich will get richer with more tax cuts and sweetheart deals, and the poor will get poorer in order to make up the new recruits in Bush's army to fight the world. 

We can prevent this from taking place by ending the nightmare on November 2. If not, then we ought to say good bye to life as we know it, and prepare to live under the new dawn of organized violence and its new ideology. 

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© Copyright 9/29/04 By Alexander Dawoody. Permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media if this credit is attached and the title remains unchanged.