A Virginia Liberal

The post preceding this was about how politics within the United States led to a war that A) ignored more than one real threats and B) attacked Iraq, a place which was certainly not a threat. Iraq is an example of internal politics ending very, very badly. This post is about some of the things Bush has done to really piss off the rest of the world.

You might have heard about the low international opinion of the United States from the liberal talking heads. What they don’t talk about is what got us there. Here is just a sampling of Bush’s many follies internationally.

#1. The ICC, or International Criminal Court . Due to the cost and trouble of setting a War Crimes Tribunal to try those accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, an International Criminal Court was proposed. George W. Bush, however, withdrew the U.S.’s representation, meaning that we had no say in how the court worked.

#2. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty . Ballistic missiles are how nuclear, biological, and chemical warheads are detonated. The really good ones can go into space, meaning that they can reach pretty much anywhere on earth in minutes. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which has been in effect since the early seventies, basically says that neither the United States nor Russia can have more than a single, land-based anti-ballistic missile system in place. Bush, predictably, had something in the works that the ABMT would stonewall, so he just abandoned it. If there’s one really quick way to make China and Russia antsy, it’s by doing this kind of thing. I mean, we’ve had this thing since decades before the Cold War even ended, and Bush just abandons it.

#3. Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects . In case the title is indecipherably long, basically, a conference on illegal small guns. Now, this has to do with restricting guns, so Bush is most certainly not supporting it. In this case, he rejected it completely. Now, we understand that Bush is a right-wing nutcase, but come on, nobody is supposed to support illegal arms! In an ironic twist of fate, Bush wants Iraqis to give up their guns, but won’t prevent them from actually getting the guns in the first place.

#4. The Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. Basically, countries that have nuclear arms gradually phase down and get rid of them, while countries that don’t have any nuclear weapons agree not to get or make any for themselves. North Korea and Libya, anyone? Once again, if Bush wanted to start another Cold War, making more nukes would be a good way to do it.

These four, and many other abandoned, dismissed, and put off treaties and agreements are why the world now hates the U.S. and Bush. He simply refuses to do anything another country asks unless it suits his purposes. If this sounds reasonable to you, I suggest you take another look at the examples of people who only co-operated when it suited them.

1. Stalin . 2. and Hitler 3. Saddam Hussein. 4. George W. Bush. 5. Ghengis Khan.

As you can see, George W. Bush has earned his place among some of history’s most vicious and brutal men. And even after this, we still re-elected him.

I’m not just referring to his poll numbers, which are abysmal, I’m referring to the actual amount of feces which Bush’s body contains. In fact, you what we should call Bush? Bu’sh’, with apostrophes to indicate that his identity is best described by the word bullshit.

And not just that he lied about Iraq. (Lied, not misled. The distinction is important, because he could mislead us without knowing he was doing it. He lied.)

Actually, let’s talk about Iraq. Probably the last remaining argument against Bu’sh’s consciously having lied is the motive argument, that is, why would he do that? Nobody really thinks Bu’sh’ is a bad guy, probably just dumb. He would never knowingly send a lot of soldiers to die, would he? Why would he invade Iraq, if not because of WMD?

Well, the fact that the next logical place to attack, Saudi Arabia, which funds and houses terrorists Taliban and otherwise, had business connections to the Bush family probably had something to do with it. Nobody really liked Saddam, and he was a miserable sonofabitch, but, and this is important, that’s not the argument Bu’sh’ made . The argument he made was that Hussein had some sort of connectio–harrumph cough cough ugh Taliban. Of course, he didn’t, Hussein and Bin Laden actually personally disliked each other, probably because Hussein liked power and didn’t like the U.S. , whereas Bin Laden had a nutcase ideal that the U.S. violated, sort of like an idealist hippy and some guy who just smokes pot.

One place that did fund the Taliban, and gave us 15 of the 19 September 11th bombers, Saudi Arabia, hasn’t exactly been the subject of United States pressure, despite the fact that the head of Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, was born in Saudi Arabia. Further damning is that until very, very recently (after 9/11) the Saudi’s have recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan. Because of this, the $2 million coming from Saudi Arabia every year as late as 2001 went directly to the Taliban.

I mean, when you hear liberals say that this war is about oil, they’re kind of ignoring the fact that Saudi Arabia has a lot more oil, a lot less insurgents, and a lot less military than Iraq did. There’s a reason Hussein plowed through them in before the first gulf war-they have no military. You know why they have no military to speak of? They’ve got a big brother, in fact, they they’ve got the big brother-the U.S. Particularly in ‘91, when Bush I was President. You see, anyone who is politically informed, and has seen Farenheit 9/11, knows about the deep, personal relationship between the Bush family and the Saudi Royal family. “Bandar Bush”, a.k.a. Prince Bandar, for example.

Here’s another reason we weren’t going to attack Saudi Arabia, and it extends beyond just Bush. You see, the Saudi Royal Family has billions of dollars invested in the United States stock market. Before September 11th, they had $666 BILLION invested in the U.S. economy. Saudi Arabia, in fact, is the biggest foreign investor in the U.S. economy. A better part of a trillion dollars of our economy is in their hands. Our surplus under Clinton was about 5 trillion, just in case you want some perspective on how much “the better part of a trillion” is. In fact, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, of the Saudi Royal Family, is the richest man in the world outside of America.

Why all this Arabia talk? Basically, I want to make the point that if Bu’sh’ was going to attack anywhere else, it should have A) been Saudi Arabia or B) not been anywhere at all, certainly not Iraq. The fact is, Saudi Arabia probably is a threat to the United States. And if this war is about oil, then you know who we would have attacked? Yeah, Saudi Arabia. The Royal Family didn’t get all that money to give to the Bu’sh’s and our economy from sand, they got it from oil. Hussein has never had anywhere near this kind of money, because Iraq has nowhere near this kind of oil. From the two most common perspectives, that A) it’s an oil war or B) it’s a security war, Saudi Arabia would have been the country to beat. Except for maybe North Korea, who I will get to, or Libya, who we bombed the crap out of.

But you know how things work? Money in our economy and connections to Bu’sh’ literally bought a dangerous country safety. Our invasion of Iraq is literally nothing more than a political war, and not even international politics. Iraq was known not to be a threat, by Bush, personally, and yet they said it was. And attacked. And killed. And 2,000 Americans died, and around 10 times as many Iraqis, many of them not just innocent men, but women and children.