Meditations (Politics): Evil Trying Evil

It was a hoot to watch the American media salivate over Saddam's capture. Acting as though their militarism and chauvinism have suddenly been vindicated, CNN, NBC, CBS, and ABC anchors could barely contain their macabre glee.

Wolf Blitzer (a Pentagon favorite leading the blitzkrieg of CNN reporting) could barely contain himself. He delighted in running down the list of Democratic candidates and politicians jumping on the Œhooray for President Bush and our brave troops' bandwagon. Pandering to the puerile American sensibility, he giddily intoned: "Saddam didn't care about anyone." That gets the award for Most Asinine Statement by a Major US commentator Wolf.

Lou Dobbs, who can always be counted on to be the most shamelessly jingoistic of CNN's anchors, pontificated about how Iraqis have "no sense of gratitude," just a "sense of entitlement" after all the good and great things America has done for them.

Meanwhile, displaying an inability to connect even the most obvious dots of darkness and deadness of this country, Dobbs continued his comedic syncopation by lamenting about how there is a "noticeably absent Christmas spirit in many communities around the country."

Abandoning all journalistic restraint, he declared that the "tyranny of the few" (such as the American Civil Liberties Union), is "pushing aside America's history, culture, and heritage." Like the behemoth of America itself, he ludicrously lumbered on: "Might this impact retail sales?"

Just when you think they've hit bottom, they go and dig a new bottom. Yes Lou, Jesus would certainly agree, we captured the bogeyman, now let's see more sales!

President Bush, as the cheerleader of this Dantean farce, used the same words that 80% of the world will use next November. "Good riddance, the world is better off without you."

Some questions are beginning to take hold after this defining moment of meaninglessness. Does Hussein's ignominious end justify America's "war of choice?" Was it worth thousands of lives and upwards of 150 billion dollars to capture this rat in his hole?

Unfortunately, empires are undone not by spilling the blood of their soldiers and other's country's civilians, but by bankrupting their own treasuries in their insatiable quest to maintain and extend their power.

Fortunately for humanity however, George Bush does not believe in the federal government, but actually wants to see it bankrupted as a way of shrinking its size. If you think that sounds a tad contradictory given his belief in the exponential growth of an already obscene military, then you are guilty of reason.

In a halfway-civilized world, Bush and his henchmen would also go on trial for crimes against humanity. War is never a means to freedom, peace, and democracy. God may have uses for war, but men and women cannot.

A principle that will be embodied in the emerging international law that Bush openly scoffs at is this: When quasi-elected leaders of formerly democratic countries invade weak countries ruled by evil tyrants, they become evil tyrants themselves.

Finally, there is the question of justice. "We will work with the Iraqis to develop a process" to try Hussein, spoke the corporate dummy about America's puppet regime. Translation: "we caught him, so we'll try him. But we'll use the Iraqis to do it so it doesn't look like victors justice."

The Bushites actually believe they can square executing Hussein with international law, when even America's closest said through its UN envoy: "we would have no part of a tribunal or a process that had the death penalty as one of its penalties."

Hussein's trial will reflect and appeal to the basest instincts in human nature. It will be sickening to watch, even in small doses, evil trying evil.

- Martin LeFevre is a contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher. He has been publishing in North America, Latin America, Africa, and Europe (and now New Zealand) for 20 years. Email: martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net. The author welcomes comments.

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