Spun out of control

Our Wild Western friend, The Existentialist Cowboy, has a fantastic post on why any U.S. PR offensive now launched is doomed to failure:

At a time when some 70% of Iraqis believe security has deteriorated in those "areas covered by the US military 'surge'", Bush efforts to define those thrown into any US facility as "terrorist" is absurd. An arbitrary exception to Due Process is thus made for people "accused" of being terrorist, though they are never formally "accused" or charged. They just "are". Bush says so.Terrorism is whatever Bush says it is. Terrorism should be dealt with by intelligence personnel and law enforcement. "Terrorism" as consisting of specific, prosecutable crimes should be treated like any other intelligence and law enforcement problem. It is understandable that Bush would not want to do so. To so treat those crimes robs him of the power he seeks. It deprives him of the various pre-texts he needs to wage war on the world. Free of "terrorist" distractions, the utterly failed and corrupt nature of Bush's miserable regime would become apparent even to his corrupt GOP base.

This corrupt Cheney/Bush regime never stood for much. Now it is merely lurching here and there in a desperate attempt to ensure its own survival. The big lie, however, has been exposed. The war crimes of these sick puppies are not in any way related to a genuine "war on terror." A genuine "war on terror," would combine very narrowly focussed attempts to bring down some real terrorist monsters like Osama bin Laden (hint to CIA: he isn't currently living in either Iraq or Iran), with a dramatic attempt to win the hearts and minds of the world by beginning to genuinely address the real, and perceived, inequities that poison so many minds against the U.S.

What the Cheney/Bush junta has established, however, is something very different. They have created (in classic 1984 Orwellian style) a permanent war mobilization as a pretext for hijacking a free country and turning it into a police state. This process is only in its early phases. If we are "allowed" to hold free and fair elections in 2008, and (unlike in 2000) actually install the new government we elect-- then, maybe our constitutional republic can be restored. Remember folks: eternal vigilance is the price of liberty!