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| Axis of Evil |
| Bush administration ratchets up rhetoric |
| 2002-08-23 |
| President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney call Saddam Hussein the "enemy." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld compares him to Adolf Hitler. An exaggeration. Papa Doc with a bit more weaponry, perhaps... Bush's national security adviser says the Iraqi president is an "evil man" who will unleash havoc on the world unless the United States stops him. In trying persuade the public, U.S. allies and, perhaps, Saddam himself that he is fair game, the Bush administration is ratcheting up its rhetoric. It's a standard entry in the presidential playbook, some say. Meaning it's just blow... The run-up to war always involves planting in people's minds "that this must be done because this person represents evil in the world," says Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. "Americans know instinctively that Saddam Hussein is an evil man and we would be better off if he were elsewhere, 6 feet under somewhere or locked up in a cell." He's actually one of a small handful that are truly evil. Bob in Zimbabwe is in the same class, but not many others. But moving people toward "pre-emptive violence," as Jillson calls it, is hard when they have not been attacked. "In other words, a Pearl Harbor will do it." And there's the problem. If the U.S. had attacked in, say, December, the public would have supported it almost without questioning. But now that almost a year's gone by, one has to accept the "global policeman" idea to actually put legitimacy to the idea of going in and beating him up. Any links to al-Qaeda are tenuous at best — probably of the "g'morning, neighbor" variety, and the public isn't worried about Iraqi missiles raining down on Cleveland or Boulder. There may not be an overt Gulf War II, though I suspect there will be. I think most of this is going to be done behind the scenes. If it's done right, 2003 will be Sammy's last year on earth and it won't be American divisions who bring him to the boneyard. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Maybe, but this http://www.jordantimes.com/Wed/news/news7.htm isn't done just for grins |
| Posted by: Don 2002-08-23 08:05:26 |