The Un-Americanism of the Bush Administration

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The Un-Americanism of the Bush Administration

07/10/2003 14:44

The Bush administration does not show the values that the American people admire

The American people are, in general, fun-loving, friendly and easy-going, like everyone else. Perhaps due to the short history of their nation, they are on a permanent quest to draw the line between where right meets wrong, to search for the truth, to be honest and to live within a framework of values shared by the main religions.

Although George W. Bush likes to speak about how good he and his administration are, no matter how many times he bashes the Bible and proclaims his superiority to the world as he launches his crusades against evil axes and empires, a peek beneath the veneer reveals that this man and his administration are no more American in their values than Hitler and his gang of Fascists were German.

Hitler, an Austrian, usurped the spirit of the German nation and insulted the values of its people. Bush, like the Lone Ranger, is out on a limb. Gullible and easily manipulated, his weakness of spirit has led him to cross over the line which his fellow Americans seek to respect.

While his personal life is not a matter for the public to discuss, his victory against alcoholism is commendable. However, to swap the bottle for the Bible and to follow a warped version of Christianity as justifiable as the Taliban-s extremist version of Islamic law and Pashtun lore, proves that not only the mind but also the mind-set of the man and his government is pathologically unbalanced.

Here is a man who sent people to their deaths in Texas, claiming that it was better to take a life to save others. Here is a man who has seen his armed forces commit acts of murder in Afghanistan while 3,000 civilians were butchered. Here is a man who has sent his armed forces to Iraq, where up to 7,000 civilians have been murdered. We are speaking about something in the region of 10,000 people. Ten thousand people.

Ten thousand people. Is mass murder part of the shared values of the American people? Is lying part of these values? And the bullying of weaker nations in the UN Security Council? And the blackmail used to get these countries to vote for the resolutions proposed by Washington? And the forging of documents, trying to insinuate that Niger sold uranium to Baghdad when Washington knew all along that there was no active nuclear program?

Are these the common values, shared by the people of America? They are not. Honesty, decency, a peaceful, happy life lived together in the community where discussion, diplomacy and debate are not only expounded but practiced, as the fundamental principles of democracy. These are the values of the American people.

George W. Bush and his administration have destroyed and insulted these values. George W. Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, Wolfowitz, Perle, Powell, Fleischer. Like Hitler and Himmler, these names will go down in history as the people who stepped over the line, who went too far, who destroyed the fabric of diplomacy, betrayed the principles of their people and created a feeling of abject hatred for their cause in the hearts and minds of the vast majority of mankind.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey