Watching US President Bush making his recent speech makes me wonder about how well he plays poker.
Watching US President Bush making his recent speech makes me wonder about how well he plays poker. He certainly knows how to play the cards available to him: The overwhelming power of US military and covert assets. The shameful collaboration of local elites. The sycophancy and obedience of corporate media. But there are weak cards to his hand too.
The industrial and financial costs of the warfare state are becoming a matter of serious alarm to such formerly obedient servants as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which has today warned again about the negative effects of the war and tax-cut driven deficits now structurally a part of US public and private finance.
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The increasing inability of Americans to live upon their own production, to provide employment for themselves in an healthy economy is a seriously escalating problem. Most worrisome of all must be the political costs of ever-expanding aggressions in an ever-growing list of countries -- one of them your own, Venezuela.
Everything happening now in the arena of international politics acts to reinforce the perception of 80-90% of the world's population that the USA is now a dangerous and aggressive; some even say fascistic state.
The polarization and division of the USA as she comes increasingly under oligarchic rule stands in the most stark contrast to her domestic situation when she fought WWII. In those days, the US oligarchy accepted confiscatory taxation, gave its own sons to the military, seconded important industrialists to the production of war materials.
The major corporations paid 100% surplus profits taxes, producing guns, tanks, aircraft and everything else needful for the war effort for one dollar above cost. The commons saw this behavior on the part of their leaders and accepted willingly the drafting of their own children and worked hard and long in the economy for victory.
How different it is now!
No American citizen is blind to the selfishness of our leadership. None of their children are to be found in Colombia or in Iraq. These elites fall all over themselves to loot the military budget. Even as massive shortages of ordinary soldiers plague war planners, almost all new funds are dedicated to new ship or aircraft -- corporate profit makers. And then these narrow and small men pass special new legislation to decrease their own tax liabilities and raise those of the ordinary citizen. And off-shore banking and other business shelters allow them to escape most other tax liability. Nor can any observer escape noting that the unrestrained corporate exploitation of the new Iraqi colony has been a major factor in the rebellion there.
I believe these economic and social weaknesses underlying the apparently flourishing American economy are likely to be an increasingly decisive factor. The behavior of US authorities, acting out their class prejudices and interests has certainly provoked this disorganized although rather massive resistance, requiring very extensive and expensive military operations for its suppression.
These are very poor cards to have to play. The USA is likely to "win" several tricks, but almost certain to lose the game as she becomes more and more over-extended.
In other news, we see nearly unrestrained air assaults now in Iraq against the popular resistance. In what is the pattern for US penetration of country after country, we see a constant low level of resistance in the favelas of Haiti, and the need to keep paying off the new death-squad regime there: More repression breeding more resistance. And very interestingly, reports are now circulating of the beginnings of military construction on the seacoast of Western Haiti. This suggests a design for eventual military deployment against Cuba.
I expect the unceasing media attacks on Cuba are a prelude to invasion, as soon as troops can be spared from Iraq or as soon as new troops can be raised after the US elections. In which case there will doubtless be very prolonged and expensive guerilla resistance there.
This attack will probably also be simultaneous with attacks by US and proxy Colombian forces upon Hugo Chavez Frias and his government, also under constant attack by corporate/state propaganda. I must believe and warn that this attack cannot be prevented even by Hale Boggs or any other corrupt Washington lobbying organization your government may hire.
Certainly I can respect the efforts of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry and its diplomats to work in every way for peace, but the economic situation of the empire demands loot and plunder.
And Venezuela does have all that oil.
Source: Chris Herz, VHeadline
