STATE OF WAR

Got the Risen book last night and have been reading it in my spare time. It's very disturbing, as you might imagine. The book's subtitle, "The Secret History Of The CIA And The Bush Administration" gives a clue to what's so disturbing--all the secrecy.

Risen talks about secret courts, secret signings, secret prisons, secret briefings, etc. I hope Bush's investigation of the leaking of "the Program" does find out the name of the person or persons who leaked this stuff to Risen, because that person is a hero.

The revelations in the book are not exactly new to those who read the progressive blogs, or even those who can read between the lines of the mainstream media. But it's still sickening, stunning stuff and I'm only up to p. 57.

Unspoken

But what keeps striking me as I read this is, "Is all this really necessary?" All this spying and torture and indefinite imprisonment and intimidation of Congress, supposedly to keep another terror attack from happening?

I mean, I've got a good way to keep another terror attack from happening--stop provoking people around the world. Like in Iraq, for example. Let's leave them the hell alone--get out immediately and try as best we can to fix what we've fucked up.

But I guess you can't make billions of dollars in profits if you don't provoke a few oil-rich countries every now and then. And that's really the crux of the biscuit.

We can put Dick, Halliburton, Shell, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, etc. out of business very easily. Ask Willie Nelson.

And that's the unspoken part of all that Risen is describing--the assumption that America needs to keep on intimidating and provoking people around the world, and given that that is the case, there needs to be this elaborate, secret, civil-liberty-crushing operation that tries to minimize what everyone knows to be an inevitable result of meddling.

"Protecting The Country"

Let's face it, George Bush isn't "protecting" our country or ensuring our "national security." By which I mean, for example, that poverty has risen every year he's been in office after decreasing every year Clinton was in office. Or that the most devastating act of terrorism in the U.S. happened on Bush's watch. Or that American jobs are being outsourced. And then, after letting jobs leave the country, he made it harder to clear debts and get a fresh start. Oh, and then, after losing your job, maybe you also lost retirement and/or pension.

Bush protect this country? It's a fucking bad joke, man.