The Dark World of Bush

The predictable event of Benazir Bhutto's assassination is a foreshadowing of the dark world into which we will continue to descend if we follow the logic of Bush. By the CIA's account, that logic has created more extremists around the globe.

That logic takes the form of "the end justifies the means," "shoot first ask questions later," on an individual scale, and "preemptive war" on an international scale. Bush's logic has brought us the horrific notion that "enhanced interrogation [AKA torture] is acceptable... if the US does it," when those of us who have an understanding of the context know that "interrogation" is a cover for using torture as a psychological weapon... another aspect of Bush's logic.

Bush's logic, and the world it brings, means "more secrecy," "training of thousands of people in the dark para military arts," people who will some day use that training for private ends. The logic includes "narrowing of civil liberties is necessary in a time of war," like privacy, the right to associate without fear of reprisal... the list is too long in this category. Bush's logic envisions perpetual war of which authors like Orwell wrote years ago... and it's not just Bush. He seems to be the current face of a long lineage.

In writing about a time in the 1960s, when the US started down this dark path, author H.E. Livingston wrote:

When one powerful group thinks that the end justifies the means, and flagrantly breaks the law, when we turn our backs on the very democratic institutions and traditions we most value, when violence and murder become political tools, then we enter a nightmare world in which we are all at risk. Once descended into the underworld of darkness, it is impossible to emerge unscathed.

Bhutto's assassination is a chilling harbinger. The political assassinations of the 1960s and 9/11 showed that the USA is not immune to chaos, foreign or domestic. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party leadership is infected with the Bush logic. The courts are steeped in the Bush logic. The corporate media boosts its ratings, and profits, by playing on the macabre and thrills associated with Bush's dark logic.

On top of this, the USA is potentially about to descend into deep economic troubles, which will heighten the sense of desperation and the hunt for scapegoats; it's hard for a debtor nation to pay its debts when the tax base is dissolving due to the permanent outsourcing of jobs, the offshore tax havens of so-called "US corporations," and demographic trends of an aging nation. Aside from external forces, only the people of the US can steer us away from the horrors that will unfold if we keep following the dark logic of violence, secrecy, and other Machiavellian ways.