Bush - Emperor Without Clothes
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8 December 2006
Posted to the web 8 December 2006

Reason Wafawarova
Harare

THE current geo-political system evolved from the bipolar hegemony involving the US and the USSR from 1945 to 1989 to the current uni-polar hegemony where the US has enjoyed virtual empire status for the past 16 years.

Global hegemony has the legacy of having successive empires resolving to impose values, beliefs, ideology, economic models and military influence on weaker states in particular and on the rest of the world in general.

This has been the greatest undoing to all empires that preceded the US, the failure to realise that externally imposed change to social values is always repelled by the nature of human beings that abhors external influence.

It would appear that the only lesson the US has learnt from history is that empires, like most man-made institutions, do not learn from history.

Like the Roman and British empires before it, the US sits astride the globe dressed in shiny apparel of deceitful but attractive ideas like democracy, human rights, and neo-liberalism.

To this end, any states that threaten US foreign policy like Zimbabwe, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Bolivia and Cuba are supposed to be viewed as naked "pariahs" in dire need of the robes of neo-liberalism.

The question many analysts have asked and want answered is how genuine are the colours on the apparel of US President Bush, the "Emperor"?

While it is clear that Uncle Sam is stark naked, many can only giggle with their faces hidden in their armpits.

It's only the intrepid few, like Cde Mugabe and Chavez, who can afford to guffaw outright.

This is what happened with the Florida follies in 2000 and is being repeated in the apparent defeat in Iraq. It is certainly the same scenario surrounding the horrors of Abu Ghraib, and the Guantanamo Bay brutalities as well as the war crimes wantonly committed by US troops in Afghanistan.

In 2000 the world was treated to an amusing show of two US presidential candidates jostling to see who had actually won the national election. It was a contest that had been reduced from millions of votes to a few hundred votes in the State of Florida.

The close contest was a result of malfunctioning voting machines that failed to properly record the voters' intentions, particularly in the southern states where Gore commanded a lot of support from the poor black population.

It was also based on badly designed ballots that misled voters, police intimidation, the refusal by the US Supreme Court to recount the vote, the exclusion of a significant portion of the electorate, mostly black, because they had mostly trivial criminal records, the use of vicious vigilante groups to stop the re-counting of ballots and the role of prejudiced authorities in adjudicating the outcome of the election.

The result of this naked dance by the Emperor was "victory" for the Republican candidate, George W. Bush, himself a shameless war monger whose arrogance on the global pedestal of hegemony has not been equalled since the days of King Nebucadnezer of Babylon.

Bush "won" despite the fact that he trailed his Democratic challenger, Al Gore by more than 400 000 votes, all because of a skewed Electoral College system that favours smaller and conservative US states.

All this was not in a "rogue state" or a failed state, a pariah state or in Haiti, Zimbabwe or Congo; no it was happening in heartland America.

It was at the veritable international pulpit so often used to deliver fiery sermons and finger-wagging evangelism about glorious liberty, transparency and pure electoral conduct to those considered lesser people.

For the first time since the world had been treated to the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinskey sexual antics, this was another free show from the Emperor which left many fighting hard to suppress the urge to giggle or to burst into outright rib-cracking laughter.

Indeed the Emperor was naked and much to the chagrin of gullible puppets like our own opposition leadership who tried to point at transparency where all of us were seeing primitive chicanery and a real stolen election, at variance with the Mugabe-Tsvangirai race which was as clear as they come.

The US media was tasked with the role of proving the resilience and strength of American democracy and indeed they had takers in the likes of our own Madhukus and Makumbes who are so gullible as to confuse the difference between democracy and sources of donor funding.

I remember when George W. Bush was declared the winning candidate. I looked up to the sky and said: "Where else is this possible?"

If the electoral events in the 2000 US election have sounded astounding so far then one must follow the fascinating discourse of those who sought to manage the situation for both the Americans and the rest of us.

The actual principles of democracy were openly sacrificed on the altar of stability, continuity and eventually "closure" of the matter. It became clear that appearances had to be kept for the sake of neighbours and the children who without delay or doubt had to be told who the next incumbent of global leadership was.

According to the Americans, at least those who handled the matter, the issue had to be settled once and for all before the world started to crash and burn.

The settling meant that the facade of democracy was more important than its substance and such is the hypocrisy of the US.

Those who handled the disgrace reasoned that it was more important to observe how the stock market reacted more than it was to see how the people of Florida had actually voted.

The Democrats though robbed of victory, appeared convinced that they also needed this mysterious closure of the matter, perhaps because of fear that someone out there would shout loud and clear that the Emperor had no clothes.

The very product of this shameful act, George W. Bush has gone on to shred the robes King David danced in the most of undignified manners.

At least King David was doing it to worship God and that earned him glory.

King-Kong Bush has been repeatedly doing the strip dance to pay obeisance to the misplaced doctrine of white supremacy, to worship market forces and to sate his sanguine desires.

Now the naked dance in Iraq has reached its climax and this time its more sadness than giggles for the "lesser" races.

The Americans once proudly claimed they would "democratise" Iraq within three months then pull out.

It is now three and a half years down since that proclamation, and they are failing to come up with a face saving plan to withdraw from a clear and humiliating defeat at the hands of resilient Iraqis.

Once again, the world is failing to suppress its giggles over the military failures and undressing of the Emperor just like what happened in the 1970s in Vietnam and in 1993 in Somalia.

Many people still can't believe that the US troops were driven out of Somalia by a group of women and children wielding AK47s and using them effectively to kill 18 US troops.

The UN Human Rights Commission's report on proceedings at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is the most appalling story I have ever found in an official document. It outlines the systematic torture of victims of the "anti-terror" campaign and it clearly shows how Bush has chosen to stand legibus solitus (above the law).

The details may be too long to outline in this article but it is high time those of us who still look up to the mountains of America as the yardstick of hope, survival and freedom to have rethink our folly.

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Southern Africa
Zimbabwe

Many in our opposition and some Western sponsored civic organisations would take offence at this article, as leftist or maybe pro-Zanu-PF but that alone cannot dress their naked Emperor.

We have very little to borrow from the American legacy, which we should give a wide berth, that way this world would be destined for a better future.