Evidently, people have learned little
since 1945, if the comments on this series of images from Hiroshima and Nagasaki are any indication.
Are we on the verge of doing it again? Perhaps:
Another serious development is the growing role of the U.S. Strategic Command (StratCom), which oversees nuclear weapons, missile defense, and protection against weapons of mass destruction. Bush has directed StratCom to draw up plans for a massive strike against Iran, at a time when CentCom has had its hands full overseeing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Shifting to StratCom indicates that they are talking about a really punishing air-force and naval air attack [on Iran],” says Lang.
I wrote here the other day that I considered Bush to be our second worse president. I hold the top spot for Truman, partly for his choice to drop nukes on Japan, as well as his sending troops to Korea without Congressional approval, making the War Powers clause of the Constitution null and void.
Bush is not a Hitler, nor a Stalin. He has not murdered millions, only hundreds of thousands. In today’s instant information society, he couldn’t get away with the slaughter of thousands of his own citizens- nor would he have to. As the comments to the images of the mass murder of Japanese civilians atest, he has more than a few willing executioners here at home, who would gladly do it for him. No, Bush has created a government more secret than any we’ve seen before, a criminal organization that has shredded our civil rights, instilled a chilling effect among its citizens, and has marched our country into bankruptcy, lavishing tax breaks and bonuses to his pals in the military and energy industries, cutting taxes for the rich while gutting the middle class. The dollar is teetering on the edge of collapse, his new budget cuts spending for everything except killing- and now he wants to attack Iran, another nation that hasn’t threatened us.
And all the while, from living rooms to the Senate floor, people wring their hands and play little word games to avoid dealing with the main issue- Bush- or more accurately, Cheney- has crafted a tyranny, answerable to no one. Watching the “debate” over which meaningless resolution the ball-less Senate would discuss (naturally, on the Daily Show) makes bile rise in your throat- you want to march to Washington, grab any two senators, oh, lets say Reid and whoever that jackalope from Kentucky is, and smack their heads together and scream:
“Quit jerking each other off and STOP THIS FUCKING MADMAN!”
But no, everyone sits around and “debates” about debating empty gestures, while the bodies mount. We send warships into the Gulf, while our impotent “represenatives” argue about Pelosi’s plane, or Edwards’ bloggers- while a madman prepares for a war we cannot afford, will not win, and is illegal by any international or humanitarian standard. History will not judge us well. And frankly, at this stage, we deserve no better.
