Our
President told the debate audience, "You cannot lead if you
send mexxed missiges." I certainly hope not.
But that's exactly what we got. You watch our President, the nervous
hand-hiding, the compulsive water-glass-fondling, the panicked
I-wish-I-had-a-whiskey look, and you think, "My god, this is
the guy who's supposed to save us from al Qaeda."
And how are we going to win the War on Terror, Mr. President?
"First of all, of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I
know that," he said. Well, that's a start, I suppose.
But it doesn't have to stay this way. This is America, home of the
brave and where, I remember from school, we could vote for president
and the votes would count. So we looked to the tall man next to him
to show us the way out.
In Iraq, "We don't have enough troops there," said the
tall one. Really, Senator? We should send MORE? Not exactly: Mr.
Tall's got a plan to get our troops out. He'll have a big meeting of
"allies," and after he talks with them, they will all jump
up and volunteer to send THEIR kids to Fallujah. France and
Indonesia and Kuwait can't wait to ship in soldiers and extra body
bags. Right. We love you, John, but there’s no band of Hobbits
coming to the rescue -- that's just a movie.
Well, he looked kind of "presidential." But given the
line-up includes Nixon, Ford and two Bushes, that's not a big trick.
I'm sorry. I know I'm supposed to stand up and cheer that John Kerry
didn't get Gored. In fact, if you look at presidential debates the
way the media plays it, as something akin to Olympic figure skating,
where you score for the competitor’s style, you could say Kerry
won.
But I don't feel WE won anything.
I mean, when Jim Lehrer asked how the candidates would make America
safe from terrorists, Mr. Tall said he'd hire more firemen. And add
more cops. Maybe he thought he was running for mayor.
It was disappointing, but then Mr. Small's answer was downright
frightening. We have to "stay on the offensive," and
"stay on the offense," and "I repeat, stay on the
offense." We have no doubt that Mr. Small can be
extraordinarily offensive, but even he can't take his offensiveness
to the bad guys if he doesn't know where they are. And on that
point, he's clueless.
There were two words I was hoping to hear from Mr. Tall:
"Saudi" and "Arabia." Imagine if he laid it on
the line, "The terrorists didn't put the hijackings on a credit
card, Mr. President. Their Saudi sponsors are fattening on the
bloated war-driven price of oil. But you can't touch your
buck-buddies in the Gulf, can you, Mr. President?. As
Commander-in-Chief, I'd cut'm off at the spigots, beginning with the
release of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And then I'd
seize their fat assets in the USA to compensate the victims of
terror attacks."
When Mr. Tall was asked what whoppers the President has told us,
surely there was something a bit more memorable than Mr. Small's
failing to win over allies for his whacky crusade.
Here's what Mr. Tall said . . . in my dreams:
* "Beginning in March 2001, your Administration began a series
of meetings with oil company executives to map the conquest of Iraq
and its oil, a plan Americans would pay for in blood. You originally
called this scheme, 'Operation Iraqi Liberation' -- O.I.L. We don't
appreciate your little joke, Mr. Small."
* "One month after seizing Baghdad you fired General Jay
Garner, the man you put in charge of Iraq, after he called for rapid
elections in Najaf; after he refused to impose your plans to sell
off Iraq's oil fields. In Najaf, citizens denied ballots, turned to
bullets. And then, as General Garner predicted, the seizure of
Iraq's assets resulted in the type of war one expects -- when
seeking to impose colonial control."
* "Mr. Small, you claim we've given a thousand lives to bring
democracy to the Mid-east. But so far, your democracy, Mr. Small,
comes down to a puppet prime minister, we've installed in Iraq and a
puppet government, the Saudis have installed in Washington."
OK, I can't expect all that in a presidential debate, where the
message has to fit through a tube. But still, Mr. Tall could have
won my vote with two words. It's the two-word answer John Kerry gave
three decades ago when asked the same question -- “How can we get
our troops out of a disastrous war?”
Then, the clear-minded, tall young men said, "In ships."
View
Greg Palast's exclusive interview with General Jay Garner for BBC
Television in the film, "Bush Family Fortunes," available
this week on DVD in an updated edition from Ryko at http://www.gregpalast.com/bff-dvd.htm.
