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By Mario Giardiello
September 11th is an excuse for Bush to push his ultra-conservative agenda. His plans to spend billions of dollars on the military, attack the Middle East for its oil, act unilaterally on foreign policy, undermine civil liberties (especially if you are Brown or Muslim) and cut social programs is made possible because of the fear his administration has created through 9-11 and subsequent terrorist threats.
The money that Bush is spending on the military is outrageous. Liberals in Congress have been bullied into passing the budget for fear of being labeled traitorous or unpatriotic. It is even more shocking when we find out how money the defense and oil contractor cronies of the Bush administration are getting. No-bid contracts for Haliburton, so far have reached over $8 billion. That is almost 10% of the entire new budget Congress just passed. The military is one of the few things that Republicans believe we should be spending our federal money on, and now the Bush administration has a reason to do so.
It has long been suspected that Bush�s motive for war in Iraq has been oil. This suspicion has been passed over by conservatives as being liberal sensationalism motivated by politics. Now, in light of the money being handed over to Bush�s friends, we realize it is a reality. The U.S. hasn�t even started benefiting from the oil coming out of Iraq, but friends of the Bush administration are already winning big. Haliburton, on one contract, is not even doing anything but being the middle-man to pump oil from Syria to Iraq, and they are making billions. They aren�t even the one�s doing the pumping � they are just subcontracting it to a Syrian company. Bush knew this war was a gravy train from the beginning, and he is exploiting the situation unabashedly.
9-11 has also given Bush an excuse to act unilaterally on foreign policy. For a long time, ultra-conservatives have dismissed the U.N. as being too soft and no longer a viable means to make global decisions. The U.N. takes all parties into account before making decisions and this can be very frustrating for a country that has a set agenda � to democratize the world and open it up for a world market that is beholden to it. When the U.N. considers what�s good for the global community, it gets in the way of our capitalist agenda. So, this administration has done its best to undermine a world-wide body that was brought together after WWII to ensure no one country gets too greedy and to prevent the civil liberty abuses we are seeing from the Bush administration.
Republicans have long believed that we should close our borders to all. 9-11 has been a good excuse to get tough on the Mexican border. We have increased spending on border patrol and resources to ensure no terrorist gets through our southern border. Millions of dollars later, with thousands of people being mistreated and hunted like dogs, there has not been one terrorist found infiltrating our borders through Mexico. The closing of the border could not have been done without the fear created by our administration that terrorists can come through this border. There has not been a time that our civil liberties have been in such jeopardy since the McCarthy period. If you have a Muslim name or look foreign in this country today, you do not enjoy the freedoms promised to most Americans.
Our social programs are being sacrificed because of the fear that the Bush administration is instilling in us. The security threat is so hyped up that Americans are afraid to move. This has been his plan from the beginning. If we are afraid for our security then we can rationalize the administration spending the money on military and homeland security rather than the programs so desperately needed by the middle class and poor of this country. Now, we are slowly watching our programs (that serve people) dry up. From social security (that he promised he wouldn�t touch) to education (no child left untested), he is undermining the hard work of social workers, teachers, government services, and non-profit workers. These are not programs that are wasteful but are directly linked to the prevention of crime, gangs, drugs, homelessness, and people losing their jobs. The loss of these programs will be felt in the coming years.
Finally, our economic woes are being covered up by short-term gains from tax-cuts and low interest rates. The tax cuts are not a jump-start for the economy. This would suppose our economy is on the way to a full recovery. This is an economy built upon false pretenses. It is irresponsible to build up so much dept, especially since our last President did such a good job of getting rid of it. Clinton was responsible for trimming the fat in government, and reducing the budget by more than $300 billion. Now, we will be more than $300 billion in the red. This has long been a warning from economic experts, but the short term gains Bush stands to win shows he is selfishly thinking about his reelection rather than this country. The only thing that has sustained us economically for the past 2 years is the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates so low. Without Greenspan, Bush would have us in an even worse state.
Make no mistake about it: 9-11 has been very good to George Bush. It has enabled him to use his power to make his friends rich who are now beholden to him, ignore our allies that took decades to build, and turn away from the needs of the American people. Unfortunately, we may not see the ills of Bush�s ways until after November when we will be stuck with him for another 4 years.
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