“Sorry George, you are no Jack Kennedy…”
[Rather than just steal his style, Curious George should learn from John Kennedy]
Written by Darkstar, MLIS
[Refuse & Resist]-[DNN]-[the Hanged Man]
15 October 2002
Well, the Theif-of-State is at it again. No, he hasn’t been seen stealing the towels from the White House washroom, but he has attempted to steal something else – another man’s thunder. This week will mark the forty-year anniversary of one of humankind’s most dangerous moments of the Cold War. Of course, I speak of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
During a recent speech [in Cincinnati, Ohio], George W. Bin Laden continued a most popular tradition amongst recent Presidents: invoking and calling upon the sacred ghost of the late President John F. Kennedy.
“Georgie, we hardly know ye…”
In his speech directed at the “Iraqi crisis,” [what crisis?] Bush called to center stage the ghostly specter of the Cuban Missile Crisis. A time when nuclear crisis meant serious shit. Not just, “maybe a future threat…that is to say a threat in the future.” Maybe if our President wouldn’t speak in fourth grade lingo, his message of War might really scare someone [It certainly does me, but America seems fast asleep]. But, alas…I get ahead of myself.
Bush should think twice before entering the hallowed halls of Camelot, for the reflection he seeks may expose the underbelly of the beast. From the mirror on the wall, we can observe the reflection thus cast is not quite as flattering as George would wish it to be. No matter, I suppose, as most of America
is lost in the smoke and mirrors of political manipulation, soon to possibly lead us to slaughter
our fellow human being.
Let’s see… “Mirror, mirror on the wall…Please compare and contrast for us all.” Kennedy and Bush were both children of privilege and both were quite apathetic and inattentive students in their respective Ivy League universities. Both won controversial and, at times troubling elections by questionable methods [Kennedy - his stuffed Chicago ballot boxes and Bush his Florida debacle] by the slightest of near non-existent margins. In Bush’s case, rather than just stuff a ballot box, he steals the election by the “in-your-face, devil-may-care” attitude that permeates his entire political philosophies. This administration cares not to even hide the affront. They rightfully assume that Americans are too busy in their personal BS [Who can I fuck over today?] or selfishly lazy in the intellectual and physical struggles of his or her own fellow human beings. At least Kennedy appeared to care.
Both Kennedy and Bush chose to articulate and underscore foreign policies abroad, and moved to strengthen the Executive Branch’s foreign policy influences rather than be overburdened by the domestic home-front. And let us not forget that both benefit from high approval ratings based on the skill of sharp spin-doctors [although Bush continues to lose ground as the American economy slips into oblivion]. Both have a compliant news media that questions little, if at all, and the onset of a perceived global
international crisis.
However, it is here where the two part company and the similarities end. As Bush continues to dress himself up in the clothes and crown of Camelot, he would be wise to avoid, at all costs, any reflective surfaces or grand ballroom mirrors…for the reflection he casts may well be one of stark historic contrast and incredibly deadly consequences.
There maybe a few similarities betwixt the two, but the differences remove all doubt. Kennedy faced his country’s obligation in the time of war, serving actively in the U.S. Navy, engaged in combat. Bush, however, hid under the coat-tails of his father’s influence and relaxed comfortably in the Texas Air National Guard, at home, as he engaged in all night drinking binges and cocaine abuse while Johnny was away in Vietnam paying for our sins. And Kennedy fought corporate power and greed in the ’62 collision with Big Steel. Can you see “W” engaged in the reigning in of corporate misdeeds? Never. He is the very product of the corporate rape that besieges the American People. His and his kind, have their big guns drawn on what was once the largest monetary surplus in the history of our country. We have now lost a full one-third of the net worth of America in the few short months with King George the Second at the helm.
Kennedy had a command of the English language, in a voice that spoke in a rich tone of ageless phrase, which possessed uncommon wisdom and wit. He performed just as well unscripted, even if taken by surprise. Bush tries to avoid the oft unscripted encounters and seldom seems able to resist his gift of inserting his foot into his mouth, much less have possession of the ability to “turn a phrase” in even the most vernacular of common speech.
Hey, don’t look at me…I am not the one attempting to use smoke and mirrors in order to justify a “pre-emptive” unilateral strike on a country that we supplied with biological weapons and other assorted toys, while trying to look official in my best Kennedy face as I run head-long into a war based on greed, Oil supplies, and the fêted calf of Middle East domination by the placement of puppet regimes and “regime change” [the kinder, gentler friendly-fascist word for a coup d’ e-tat or outright assassination ] in a land masse that the West so desires to conquer and divide [as was perpetrated on its own Native population.] Sad but true, we want…so we take. Is it me, or is there a pattern here?
As a Historian, I must step back a moment [we seldom know enough, and never know it all about ANY given situation] and point out that although Kennedy has been exalted for his 1962 success, there were several flaws with his pre-crisis policies that may have led directly to the near fatal disaster of nuclear exchange. By threatening Cuba with invasion, by repetitive attempts to oust Castro through a rebellion or an assassination [“regime change”], by escalating the arms race, and by placing nuclear missiles in Turkey, Kennedy contributed heavily to the crisis at hand. Sound familiar? Must we oft make the same costly mistakes?
Moreover, during and directly after the crisis, Kennedy believed he had to stare down Khrushchev by military might and an iron will. This gave Kennedy an air of toughness, one which history may yet re-write, as the true nature of the events are a bit more complex than most tend to realize. Beyond that, however, Kennedy held back the awesome power of our military might. History shows us through DECLASSIFED
documents and tapes that Kennedy deeply feared any act which might have led down the path to a nuclear outcome. He bent over backwards, moving against the more hawkish advisors that required a military strike, in order to avoid war at any cost.
Since one must never allow a false pretext to dictate one’s attitude or behavior towards others, I have spent considerable time obtaining DECLASSIFIED materials to examine BOTH sides of an issue. This campaign has been waged on many fronts, one of which was legal action through the Freedom of Information Act by a simple document request or a complex series of lawsuits. Unfortunately, the Patriot Act of 2001 is structured in a manner to expressly shut down, with malice and forethought, the historic struggle between truth and non-truth [dare I say…lies?], and the right of its people to gain the keen knowledge of its government’s secret agendas and hidden history. I encourage each and every one of you to read and understand the changes made to our precious liberties, and the future lack thereof.
However, I digress, as usual. What about the specifically detailed analogy that Bush continues to draw between our current situation and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962?
Rather than calling for massive air strikes to “prevent imminent aggression” or an all-out war in an effort to “pre-emptively strike” at a country that is perceived a threat to the very core of our existence, Kennedy chose the sane option of a naval blockade. He utterly refused to flex America’s Military might and respond by force when F. Gary Powers and his U-2 spy plane was shot down by a SAM missile. -GASP- He even secretly removed our nuclear missiles placed in Turkey, as a trade off, in order to defuse the near nuclear crisis and to clear the muddied waters of the complex Soviet-American tensions. It is our nuclear missiles hidden in the sands of Saudi Arabia that set Bin Laden and his merry men off. So…GET RID OF THEM.
Today, we are led to exclaim: who needs such a tactic [as it may actually stave off a war?] Bush has America in such a rush to war, he knows not of whom to attack first. And this question begs an answer: Where is Usama Bin Laden? Bush responds, “I do not know and furthermore, could care less.” Wait! Who did you say killed 2,000 plus Americans? Who IS A REAL THREAT? It is sickeningly obvious that this is not about a “War on Terror,” rather a frighteningly brazen attempt to control the Middle-Eastern countryside and its precious flow of Texas Tea.
In history, we find that there was another dominant Nation-State that was militarily adept and financially successful who felt their “National Security” was in “imminent danger” and made a unilateral and “pre-emptive” strike on the country that was a perceived threat from abroad. They were later tried for war crimes at the conclusion of their hostilities.
This country was of course, Japan. And America was her “threat to National Security.” Sorry, MR. BUSH, you will need a better justification than just a threat to our beloved comfortable life of drive-thru windows and microwave ovens. As I see it, our political philosophies are currently as debased as “I got a big stick, give me your shit so I can live better, faster, cheaper, and easier than you.” This is a war for convenience and above all else, a war meant to fill the pockets of this Nation’s “Oilagarchy.” Kennedy’s “threat to National Security” was truly a threat to the welfare of all humankind as we teetered on the edge of an internationally proposed nuclear policy of Mutually Assured Destruction.
So, if our current un-elected Chief of State wishes to hang his hat in the halls of Camelot and intends to parade around wearing the royal crown while riding the coat-tails of yet another elder statesman, all the while conjuring up the “ghost of Kennedy Past,” then he should do so honestly and completely, rather then just quoting the feisty rhetoric of great men before him. Maybe if he were to have spent less time chasing girls and drinking beer at Yale, King George the Second could have learned the lessons of such noble men. When confronted with a problem of much greater magnitude than the current situation Iraq could ever be, Kennedy chose restraint, and acted in a rational manner that saw the light of solution without the blood of war. He treated the notion of war as a last resort, not a as first solution. Sorry, George…that crown is a bit big for you yet.
Maybe if the boy King plays his cards right, someone may quote HIM in a Presidential Speech circa 2050. [Somehow that notion is truly frightening.]
As for the crown you now possess…
Better to grow into it, rather then bend it to fit. For if you run into battle, dear George, it may tumble off your head and fall into one of the many pools of blood left by the courageous men and women of our armed forces who died on your behalf [not to mention the hundreds of thousands of non-Westerners.] Let us choose the right path, before it is too late. Hate breeds hate, and…after all, blood stains.
GoEasy,
~~Darkstar~~
[until we meet again...]
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