Do You Hear What I Hear? See What I See?

September 10, 2007

When 9/11 happened the nation was shaken. Certainly I was shaken. The shock. How could this be? Here? New York? The planning! The execution! The many people killed! The many families damaged! When the President spoke to us the news and everyone I spoke to said they were reassured. Some said it was his finest hour. I saw the President repeatedly on TV, I heard him, and I was not reassured. He frightened me. I saw a man following a script and I could not see the real man.

What do you mean?

I saw a man playing a role that I had seen many times before. It was the sheriff (not necessarily the leading role) in the many western movies I saw as a child. He was earnest, sincere, full of old clichés. “It was a dastardly deed.” “We will leave no stone unturned.” “He can run but he can’t hide.” “We will track him down and we will get him.” Clearly western. Because of the script it was a B movie. Is this the way they talk in Texas? After the first few speeches, I only heard/saw The Sheriff two more times. Each time, it was “Got the man.” But he didn’t have the man. Instead it was, we won: “We won the war in Afghanistan,” and “We won the war in Iraq.” Except neither war was won. The Won the War in Afghanistan speech was so stagy -- reminiscent of the Hitler propaganda before World War II (I am that old). Instead of a western movie set or a political rally it was an aircraft carrier. I must admit I was impressed by this bit of theatre. But I spent a short bit of time in the Army and so focusing on an airplane and pilot and aircraft carrier in the water did not resonate well with me. There was too much glitzy hype. It did however register with me that Mr. Bush had served in the air force reserve (maybe poorly) and was one of many kids who avoided the draft and were protected from the draft (his VP avoided it also through five exemptions).

It is that old Army bias. You only win a war with boots on the ground. If you march an hour you only cover a few miles. Slow. A pilot might cover 600 miles in an hour. A pilot might drop a bomb and be done for the day. A soldier is on the ground, and at the end of the day he just digs in. War is viewed as a significant, slug it out undertaking. The air force too often views war as a breeze. (Did I mention that our Secretary of War, Mr. Rumsfield, had some experience as a Navy pilot?) The Shock and Awe that heralded the beginning of the Iraq war was a quintessential Air Force show: “sound and fury signifying nothing.” Each explosion, all for show, cost millions of dollars, and they went on and on. Such chest thumping. Why I asked, did the United States need to chest thump? It was a deliberate burning of million dollar bills. Who thinks they have the right to burn this kind of money -- public money -- your money and my money? (Did I mention that the rich got tax cuts?)

Shock and awe was a great big show to divert attention from a little tiny army that could reach Bagdad, defeat the Iraqi army, but could not occupy the country, could not hold the country.

When did President Bush frighten you?

It bothered me that he was using the same words used in old B movies by sheriffs. The words were not 2000 or 1990 or even 1980 or 1970, but movie houses in the 1960’s and 1950’s. I wondered if he had words of his own. However, it was when he started to talk about how mean and evil al-Qaeda was and how it would be necessary for us to fight down and dirty that I realized the sheriff was afraid and cowardly. The strong and courageous have no need to fight dirty. For it is scared and cowardly people that are arrogant and brag and fight down and dirty. Why should this nation be afraid? I looked again. It shouldn’t be. If not the nation, then that meant it was he who was afraid. Of what? That made me afraid because I knew he would, like all fearful people, see things that were not there and make very bad mistakes, and he would be easily manipulated by those who saw him in his true colors.

Radio and television and newpapers said how forceful he was and how reassured they were.

Instead of saying the threat to us is real and we will have to sacrifice and delineating the sacrifices we need to make, he said don’t worry, go shopping. How strange. My view was befogged by all of the support he had in the media. Where our media was not present, in other countries, Mr. Bush was quite naked. A coward with all this firepower to hurt people. Like a rattlesnake pitched into a camp fire, he attacked in all directions. He attacked Iraq, he attacked Afghanistan, he attacked the CIA and he attacked every citizen of the United States.

You said he rarely played sheriff.

That is true. The other big role he played, again a B movie, not a leading role, was the country church pious pastor role. This was the role he used to lead us into Iraq. Again I had to wonder if this how pastors talk to their flocks in Texas. I have never seen, in real life, a preacher talk this way. It is the same B movie role of the bluffing gambler. Pushing the chips, upping the ante, watching your eyes. I have seen it in real life: the spinner of tale tales. In the hay camps I have watched Okies (that is what they said they were called) work new, young crew members -- from clean white collar homes. “Have you ever heard of a hoop snake? (eye lock on the young man) No. (sincere) Will there are lots of them all over the United States. Poisonous. (informative) One bite will kill you. (matter of fact) You have to be careful in hoop snake country. When a hoop snake is going to go after you he will bite his own tail, make a hoop, and roll right after you. That way they are faster than ordinary rattlesnakes. They can go faster than you can run. (reflective ) (young fella’s eyes get big) But that is the secret. They can roll real fast down hill but can’t roll at all up hill. All one has to do is simply stay above them.” Pastor Bush, sober, sincere, fatherly, a glint in his eye, explained, “can’t wait for the smoking gun... mushroom cloud in America... Hussein and 9/11... Iraq and al-Qaeda... .’ All bluff. Pretense. He did deceive. Is it that no one watches those old movies anymore? Is it that people think Presidents don’t play roles? Hook, line and sinker: a lot of people still believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that Hussein had something to do with 9/11, that Hussein was in cahoots with al-Qaeda. Or is it like I last heard about Congress: Yes we made a mistake but it would be dishonorable to admit it! Dishonorable! What planet do these people live on? At this time, September of 2007, the glint in the pastor’s eye is back and where did those $15 million dollars come from for that ad campaign for the U.S. to stay in Iraq? In whose personal interest is it that we stay in this war? Why?