Good Riddance

Because I am so exhausted at having to rage and sneer after these long eight years, I find no words to truly express my hatred for this lie we called the 43rd president now leaving office. So, I will borrow a lovely piece by a lovely writer named Chris Rowthorn.

This appeared on the political blogs yesterday morning. I say ENOUGH!

George W. Bush, on January 15, 2009, you stood before the American people and said that there is a battle being waged between "a small band of fanatics [that] demands total obedience to an oppressive ideology" and "[an]other system [that] is based on the conviction that freedom is the universal gift of Almighty God and that liberty and justice light the path to peace."

Make no mistake, Mr. Bush, you belong to that small band of fanatics. That band of fanatics has been terrorizing people since the beginning of recorded history and probably well before. You are only the latest incarnation of an evil and timeless beast that has worn the faces of Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Tojo Hideki. Let us not mince words, Mr. Bush, what you did to this country is exactly what those men did to theirs: you stole power by filthy means, you committed the nation to disastrous wars, and left your country in ruin. If this was your goal, then you can pronounce a hearty "Mission Accomplished."

Mr. Bush, you have indeed left this country in ruins. In the course of our history, we have faced many determined and terrible enemies, from King George to Adolph Hitler, but none have done what you did: you have brought this country to its knees. When you think of your legacy, you can be sure of only one thing: future historians will point to your presidency as a turning point in the nation's history - the start of a long and perhaps irreversible decline in our fortunes and our prestige.

You, Mr. Bush, are the result of a tragic accident: the apocalyptic convergence of absolute power with the complete absence of virtue. You are the scion of a family that has long used political power for personal gain. Your people are parasites clinging to the jugular of the nation. You used your father's connections at every step of your career: to get into school, to start businesses, to escape from service in Vietnam, to become governor of Texas, and to become a candidate for the presidency of the United States. As a child you tortured small animals, as a Yale student you engaged in sadistic initiation rites in your fraternity, as governor of Texas you executed 152 people. You had blood on your hands when you took office, Mr. Bush, and you have added oceans of blood during these eight long years.

In your speech, you said, "I have been blessed to represent this nation." Mr. Bush, you never represented this nation. You represented only a small group of criminals who used the apparatus of government to channel money - our money - into their pockets. You and your henchmen looted the Treasury of the United States. You ran up debts that we, our children and our grandchildren will have to pay off. You used the entire Middle East as a money laundering operation for corporations like Halliburton, Bechtel and the Carlyle Group. You sent our tax dollars via Iraq and Afghanistan to bank accounts in Houston and Zurich. Make no mistake, you did not represent the people of the United States: you represented a group of gangsters, criminals and fascists. You robbed this country blind and called it government.

In your speech the other night, Mr. Bush, you reminded us that, "I vowed to do everything in my power to keep us safe." On this score, you failed miserably and thousands of Americans are dead because of your failure. One of your first acts as president was to eliminate the cabinet-level position of Director of Counterterrorism and discontinue the Clinton administration's policy of pursuing Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. That's right: you stopped chasing the terrorists who threatened this country. And when your top aides warned you about impending terrorist attacks on American soil, you ignored them.

On September 11, 2001, planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania. Over 3,000 innocent Americans were sacrificed on that day. In a debate with Al Gore in 2000, you boasted that you would respond to any crisis this nation faces with "leadership," but on September 11, 2001, you climbed aboard Air Force One and ran like a frightened rabbit. Then, when the smoke cleared, you did everything in your power to prevent a thorough investigation into the causes of the tragedy and your complete and utter failure to prevent it.

Mr. Bush, in your speech the other night, you claimed that, "As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 911." In a speech rife with shameless lies, this was perhaps the most shameless, because you used the attack on our country as a pretext to pervert our nation, trample our Constitution and murder thousands of innocents across the Middle East.

First, you attacked Afghanistan, where you claimed the mastermind of the terror attacks was hiding. You failed to capture him, but he was not the real prize; the real prize was the oil hiding under the sands of Iraq. Despite massive evidence to the contrary - from our own intelligence services and those of our closest allies - you claimed that Iraq was behind 911 and that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. You knew that most Americans were too traumatized by the attacks of 911 to tell the difference between truth and lies.

Mr. Bush, you ordered the invasion of Iraq and, in doing so, you killed over 100,000 innocent Iraqis. You built prisons and ordered the vilest acts of torture. You allowed the treasures of an ancient civilization to be looted and destroyed. You destabilized the entire Middle East and sowed the seeds of hatred of our country that will bear the fruit of murder and destruction for generations to come.

Mr. Bush, you claimed that, "around the world, America is promoting human liberty, human rights, and human dignity." But we have the pictures from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. We know what you did. Those pictures will not go away. You put that man on the box and strapped the electrodes to his fingers. You let the dogs loose on those prisoners. You left those men out kneeling in the sun. You did that, Mr. Bush.

Mr. Bush, over 4000 young American men and women are dead because of you. You sent them to die in Iraq. Tens of thousands more are hideously maimed. They died in the service of your lies. They died because you wanted to make a small group of obscenely wealthy individuals even more obscenely wealthy.

Mr. Bush, this nation was once a model of democracy. This is the nation that defeated fascism in Europe and Asia. This nation put men on the moon. This nation was the hope of all nations aspiring to democracy, freedom and prosperity. But you have soiled the reputation of the United States of America. You have put blood on our name.

Mr. Bush, the soul of our nation is the Constitution. It is a sacred document, for it enshrines the fundamental principles of democracy. It represents the right of the people to rule their own affairs, instead of being ruled by kings. You violated both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution. You made a mockery of the Bill of Rights. You invaded the privacy of citizens. You imprisoned Americans without recourse to lawyers or a fair hearing in a court of law. You declared yourself a "unitary executive," beyond the power of the Constitution, Congress, the Courts and the will of the people. You declared yourself a king like the kings of England our forefathers fought and died against to give us our precious freedom.

Mr. Bush, you not only desecrated our name and our sacred documents, you tore this nation apart. You divided this nation between red and blue, Republican and Democrat, north and south, east and west. You cast those who disagreed with you as unpatriotic. You set this nation at war with itself. Under you, there was only suspicion, discord and hate.

In your speech, Mr. Bush, said, "we took decisive measures to safeguard our economy." No, Mr. Bush, you took decisive measure to bring this country to the verge of a Second Great Depression. When you entered office, this nation was enjoying a $200 billion annual government surplus. But you slashed taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals, committed the military to two ruinously expensive invasions, exploded the Pentagon budget, and eliminated oversight of government spending. Now, as you leave office, the United States is facing a yearly budget deficit of $1 trillion. And this is just the yearly total; in your two terms of office, you doubled our total national debt, bringing it to $10 trillion.

In your speech, Mr. Bush, you said, "For eight years, we have also strived to expand opportunity and hope here at home." No, Mr. Bush, you have presided over the worst economic disaster since the 1930s. On your watch, millions of people have lost their jobs, their homes and their retirement savings. Under you, the stock market has crashed, banks have failed, and the entire American automobile industry is on the brink of collapse. Make no mistake, Mr. Bush, because of you, Americans of all ages and economic classes are significantly poorer. Millions now face hunger, homelessness and an uncertain future. And you did this so that you could transfer the wealth of this nation into the hands of your criminal cronies.

Mr. Bush, the damage you did will hurt this nation for generations to come. We may never again enjoy the prestige or power that we enjoyed in the year 2000. You trashed the NATO alliance and mocked our oldest allies as "Old Europe". You squandered our blood and treasure in the Middle East, while nations like China and Russia were building their own wealth and power. On your watch, North Korea developed nuclear weapons. On your watch, a Pakistani scientist sold nuclear technology to all of our enemies. On your watch, you increased the chance of terrorists acquiring and using a nuclear bomb. That's right, Mr. Bush, if we see the mushroom cloud that you and Condoleezza Rice spoke of, it will probably be a direct result of your actions and your negligence.

Mr. Bush, you mentioned Thomas Jefferson in your speech the other night. There is one thing you can be absolutely sure of: if the Founding Fathers had met you, they would revile you as a base cur, for you represent everything they fought against. You were able to seize power only because of the weaknesses inherent in their design. In truth, you represent the repudiation of American Democracy, for America started as a revolt against taxation without representation, and under your government the masses were taxed but only the kings of arms manufacture and oil extraction were represented.

Mr. Bush, you may try to convince yourself and the world otherwise, but we know who you really are: you are a door through which evil enters the world. You are a tool for forces that you don't even understand. You are the crack along which the jewel shatters. Behind you, lies a wake of death and destruction. Your natural language is the lie. You cannot but open your mouth and falsehoods fly out. You are hate made manifest. You came as a curse upon this great land. You are the revenge of the Indian, the napalm-burned children of Vietnam, the murdered nuns of Guatemala and the martyrs of El Salvador. You are the karma of these United States.

Know this, George W Bush: The corporate media may try to whitewash your crimes. The next president and his allies in Congress may fail to prosecute you. Your family and friends may still treat you like a human being. Your power and wealth may insulate you from your victims. But there are hundreds of millions of people - Americans and non-Americans alike - who know who you are and what you did. We saw every one of your crimes and heard every one of your lies. We will never forgive you. And we will never forget.
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About author
Chris Rowthorn is an American journalist based in Kyoto, Japan. He has written for the Japan Times and Kansai Time Out.


Tomorrow, my take on what will be a playful, wonderful day.