The final weeks of the Bush presidency have a similar feel to experiencing that part of a horror movie where it approaches the frightful denouement. The tension has been building up since the start, but now everything is about to be revealed in all its ghastliness. The audience is frozen in a hushed and tense, terrible expectation. Hands are poised motionless over popcorn.
Thus it is reading the daily news dominated by the decisions of George Bush and the Neocons at the start of September, 2008. It is really scary, too scary, but we cannot get up and just walk out of this movie. There is nowhere to go. The movie is 'Empire of the Damned' and it is playing everywhere. No need to book; you're already in.
In what manner will the horror play out? No one knows, no one really has any idea, not even the instigators. The plot is being made up as we go along. The world is on a razor's edge. Will the explosion be the economic bomb of a total financial collapse? Or will the explosion be of the bunker buster munitions variety as Iran is carpet bombed? Will the Black Sea become the largest maritime battle this side of WW2? Will Russia and the US start lobbing thermonuclear missiles at each other? Will punk rock make a comeback?
There is a feeling at the moment that anything is possible. One gets the sense that George Bush in his current frame of mind could well mount a nuclear attack against the Moon. No one has a fucking clue, we are all just holding our breath and hoping that nothing at all will happen and that someone much nicer and more sensible will take over the presidency in the very near future... someone, anyone.
There have to be questions about Bush's fitness for office. To be blunt there have to be serious questions about his sanity. When someone is this unpredictable it is a worry. When that same person is the Commander in Chief of the most sophisticated, mass killing machines the world has ever known it is a total freak-out. It must be a worry for Vladimir Putin also, and we can but hope that he will take a little step backwards and wait to have a more sensible chat with whoever comes next. It is highly likely as he seems a much more rational person than Bush. Not a nice person, just a more rational person.
All over the world there is a sense that something big is going down soon... very big, and very soon. The world feels out of balance and something has to happen to right that sense of imbalance. Hopefully, whatever has to happen can be delayed long enough that George W. Bush plays no part in the proceedings.
It was reported in the UK Telegraph last night that if elected Barrack Obama is going to use his personality to charm extra troops out of the Europeans for Afghanistan. Is that what he thinks he needs to do to win him the election? Is that what he thinks is a good idea? Is that what he thinks we want or need? Who the hell is advising this man on foreign policy... Itchy and Scratchy? Those who still think that Bush's lunatic international posturings are a good idea aren't going to vote for you Barrack. Forget them, they're a lost cause.
We've had enough Barrack. We want you to bring the troops home, every damn one of them. We want the US to stop mincing around the world kicking sand in everyone's face. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just the little guys that we were bullying. But Russia? Russia has absolutely no choice but to dig its heels in. They know full well that if they do not draw a line in the sand now, they will eventually lose access to the Black Sea. Come on Barrack, just get the troops home as fast as possible and spend your time and energies trying to sort out the mess at home.
Maybe, when everything is hunky-dory back home, we can go off acting overbearingly superior and arrogant on the world stage again. It does seem like we just can't help ourselves. But right now, we have an economy that smells like a French public toilet and it will take all of us the rest of our lives, with our shoulders hard to the wheel, before there is any hope of it returning to a semblance of normalcy.
We don't need in excess of 700 military bases around the world. In truth we don't need any, and even if we did, we don't have the money to pay for them. We are borrowing money from China amongst others to keep those bases open. Borrowed money has to be paid back one day Barrack. Where is the money going to come from? Maybe you could impose a surplus wealth tax on tent cities. They seem to be the latest bubble.
Meanwhile, missile 'shields' are going to be erected in Poland... shades of the Cuban missile crisis. Remember how close to nuclear war those Cuban missiles took us in 1962? Nine NATO warships (with more on the way according to a recent report) are cruising around the Black Sea playing chicken with the Russian Fleet. Six US battle fleets, with some French and British warships tagging along, are in, or headed for, the Persian Gulf. The Israelis who want nothing more than to see some Gulf action will have False Flag plans coming out of their ears. Remember USS Liberty?
All this while George W. Bush is in Texas on holiday. God help us when he gets back to work again. He obviously felt the need for a little freshening up to get back into the spirit of things. Bit of a walk around the farm, off to Church for a quick pray, then back to the White house for a jolly romp with Spot the dog and some end of civilization strategic planning.
If the world survives until November, Barrack Obama will win the election. Not because he is just the man for the job, but because we are too damned scared to ever support a Republican again. It doesn't matter that Obama is black. It's irrelevant. It wouldn't matter if he was an out and out green alien with antennas sticking out of his head. He would still be a less frightening and more understandable figure than George W. Bush. As it is, Obama seems quite a pleasant bloke, certainly compared to the last two dismal no-hopers that the Democrats have put up. That won't hurt.
I haven't supported a Democrat candidate since John Kennedy. Yep, that's right, I supported Bush, twice. Well boy was I wrong. Sometimes it's hard to admit you were wrong. Not this time, I was wrong, wrong, big time wrong! McCain brings to the table the fact that he supports the continuation of the policies of George Bush, (whatever the hell they are), coupled with the fact that he also has a bad temper. I am praying that Obama wins. I don't care how much extra tax I'll have to pay at this point. Here, take my wallet.
It has to be acknowledged that Bush has not solely created the economic catastrophe that is upon the US. That was set in place and gold was a 'buy' well before Bush took over the presidency. His breathtaking ineptness though has vastly made worse the original financial problem, whilst simultaneously indulging in ill-conceived military adventures that could never have been construed in the wildest of drug fantasies to have been ever in the best interests of America.
As we countdown the final weeks toward the end of the Bush presidency, let us all pray that it does not morph into a countdown of a different sort. If there is anyone still alive to write the story of the George W. Bush presidency it is going to be a somewhat less than a laudatory tome. There will be no nostalgia on either side of politics when George W. Bush leaves office. There will be a massive sigh of relief. It will be audible all over the world. Even in these grim times I just had to chuckle at the idea of a publisher offering Bush a contract for the rights to his story.
This presidency has not been a success. Not in the boring old Gerald Ford way, or in the sleazily corrupt way of Richard Nixon, but as in a really horrific disaster sort of a way. Stephen King would do the best job of writing the story of the Bush presidency. It should be made into a film though, otherwise Dubya wouldn't get to know what happened.
