Are we underestimating Bush's intentions? accompanied by ramble

[izzybeans]

There are various themes in the press today. One is that Bush is blindly ignoring the blood on his hands <see Joe Conason for instance>. Another is from the RW about underestimating Bush <see pretty much anything Joe scarybourough has ever said>.

I think both are wrong. Isn't it time to consider that Bush knows the consequences of his actions and feels justified in them? The "fire of freedom", "freedom's march", etc are only slightly different than phrases like "preserving the race" aren't they?

Many of us call Bush evil almost as a trope-just a phrase showing our displeasure. What if this actually captured our fears and he truly is the face of evil? This inaugeral address mirrored his first in that he used a few catchphrases that would be featured in his future policy (namely terror, evil and wmd). Now we get, as Obama pointed out to Condasleeza, the conflation with the war on terror with tyranny whereever it resides. It was the only point Bush made in 21 minutes or so of babble. If we have more to fear it is the expansion of an already illegal war.


Some of the worst genocides in the world were perpetrated in the name of freedom. The colonial powers sought to "civilize" the "savage" and touched off years of civil war, internal conflicts, all across the globe.

Given our long history of an official anti-imperial foreign policy (even though it hasn't been followed since WWII in practice) the resemblance to the modern day rhetoric of Bush and the 1-2 centuries old legitimations of British King's and Queens, French dictators, Spainish Royalists, etc. we should be extremely up at arms.

Even some on the left are being "militarized" worried about troop levels and armor, more so than the actual presence of the war itself. It's as if we are being prepared for something. I fear what that will be and where it will lead.

someone please tell me I've lost it. I hope i'm wrong. I've just started reading Michael Mann's (of The Sources of Social Power and Cambridge U. Press fame, not hollywood) new book "The Darkside of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing" so perhaps he is causing me to see doom everywhere at the moment. But some signs are so similar its chilling.

A quote from the conquistadore Cortes' chornicler speaking of how they saw themselves prior to the slaughter of natives. They were to "bring light to those in darkness, and also to get rich, which is what all of us men commonly seek." If Bush were only this honest.