Four years ago today (May 1) President G. W. Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, saying "combat operations have ended and we are victorious." Today he vetoed, for the second time, a Congressional bill that would have provided additional funding for "the war that isn't" - with a pullout timetable.

In a way, Bush is right. "You don't tell the enemy when you're going to withdraw." From a military viewpoint, from a tactical or strategic viewpoint, it is indeed suicide. I truly feel sorry for Gen. Patraeus, who is stuck with trying to find a solution. The Democrat approach, though probably right from a moral/ethical viewpoint, could easily blow up in their faces.

But at the same time, we are in this war because of Bush's lies (and more specifically because of Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Paul Wolfowitz and the other neo-Nazi White house gang who foisted their fantasies on Bush). The president fell for it hook, line and sinker - even though his own father, former President Bush, strongly disagreed - because he felt it foolish for us to try to go it alone.

But back to the President's point of view. Right now, about 86% of Americans (according to polls) want the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq. But if we walk away, what is going to happen in the Middle East ... and to the price of oil? The Middle East all the down to Afghanistan and Pakistan will disintegrate, creating a vacuum that Russia and China will step into, creating a worst-case scenario. The price of oil will soar well beyond $100 a barrel, perhaps double! The Democrats will be sitting ducks for the blame.

What we, as Americans, fail to realize, is that we hated around the world. We have let ourselves be taken over by multi-national corporations such as Halliburton and we have thrown away our sense of decency, along with our freedom and liberty. We are hated because so many evil atrocities have been committed in our names and we have remained silent. We (1) fail to educate ourselves about the truths of the world, and (2) we fail to act on that non-existent education.

If I were President (and you may be glad I'm not), I would have Bush and all his cronies prosecuted (in the United States) for war crimes and imprisoned for life on charges of treason - and I would include all Congressmen who took bribes, lobbyists who offered them, and the corporations who financed them. Further, I would go back to include all living ex-officials of previous administrations, Democrat and Republican, who participated in this horror.

I would strongly and publicly urge both the public and the news media to go after and expose the crooks in government and in business. They are more than "just a few bad apples" - they are rotting the whole barrel. I would urge the public to vote, perhaps make voting mandatory. I would push voters to remove both major parties from power and replace them with a third party - at the same time wondering if human nature can rise above the power issues that such control bring.

I would push for a change in corporate law that requires any corporation doing business in America or with America to put the public interest ahead of their private monetary interests. Any corporation not willing to do so would be dissolved and its assets liquidated and returned to those from whom they were stolen. If we can require that of our citizens, we must require it of our corporations.

I would dissolve the Federal Reserve (which has stolen hundreds of billions of dollars from the American people for private enrichment) and I would return the U.S. to the gold standard, as John Kennedy planned just before he was assassinated. And I would seek full compensation from the private banks who used the Federal Reserve to steal our nation blind.

I would break up the monopolies - in energy, in the news media, in communications, in all industries where they currently exist.

I would enforce a firm halt to all illegal immigration, while at the same time sitting down with legitimate immigrant organizations to find solutions to the financial and family disaster that would hit so many of them if they were to be deported. I would require that all immigrants without citizenship rights be immediately deported if convicted of a felony - no exceptions.

Few of us know it, but we have been in a national State of Emergency since the Depression. There exist many Executive Orders enabling the President to seize control of virtually everything. I would publicly declare such a State of Emergency (so all would know it exists) and I would use it for the people, not against them, in the event Congress would not support such reforms.

I would, on the one hand, make clear to the world that we are cleaning our own house and will tolerate no further terrorism or attacks, be they from nation states or from non-state organizations. And at the same time I would meet face to face with those nations we have harmed, and I would apologize, publicly, if necessary, for our country's past actions. Forget the lower-echelon State Department officials! This problem is so serious it requires the personal intervention of the president. For too long we have been an iron-handed dictator when we should have served the world as a helpful, benevolent older brother.

I would try to accomplish all this in the four years of a single term, then step down - and back - and let our nation take its course with a fresh start.

At some point, we have to try to make amends, while at the same time defending the America that America is supposed to be. We are like an alcoholic who cannot admit his alcoholism. The very first step is in recognizing and admitting our addiction to greed. Until we can do that, we can never find recovery. Because of our inability or refusal to acknowledge our past sins, we are nearing total collapse as a society and as a civilization, just like those before us who followed the same path.

Of course, no candidate who espouses these views would ever garner the hundreds of millions of $$$$ necessary to even wage a campaign, let alone win. That's how far down the road to ruin we've fallen.

The bottom line is - are we like the island-stranded kids in Lord of the Flies or are we better than that? Are we so self-destructive that destruction is our only future ... or can we grow, spiritually, emotionally, mentally so as to embrace a better world for all - Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, Jew, agnostic, Baptist, Arab, Palestinian, Chinese, Russian, Venezuelan, Cuban, Mexican, etc.? Right now, the future isn't looking too bright.

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© 2007 by The Phoenix Foundation

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