Now I
realize that one man's biased anecdotes can never constitute
evidence (no matter how hard Mr. Bush may try), but for some
reason, most of the real people I overhear are very cynical
about this war. Note: this is not the same thing as actually
opposing the war or this illegitimate regime of ours, but
it's something.
Now I realize that the politics of people who I work
with may not necessarily reflect those of the country at large, but
what I'm trying to get at is that these are people with real lives
and real jobs with real bills to pay who have kids who they have to
take to school. I'm definitely not talking about these ivory-tower
liberals who often suffer from tunnel vision. But, suffice it to
say, I'm not the unly one who believes that Mr. Bush's illegitimate
regime is full-of-shit.
I did, however, notice, that the people I've talked to
and agree with are either Americans-of-color or recent immigrants.
So the sad thing is, they recognize the Bush regime's tactics.
Either from the crypto-fascism of the police and National Guard in
the '60's during the Civil Rights Movement. Or from the despotisms
of various other countries.
Being only a second-generation hyphenated American, I
don't have much family history directly embedded in the Civil
Rights Movement, but I can tell you that some of my family members
have had experience under totalitarian regimes. (Imperial Japan,
the Marcos regime) And the hilarious thing is, despite the fact
that many of them are hard core Republicans (well, as hard core as
you can get without actually being white), they found the Election
of 2000 all too familiar. Despite the offense that some
nationalistic Filipinos might take, the Japanese journalist who
commented that you only really expect to see such debacles in
places like the Philippines wasn't really off the mark.
So the Serbian American is likewise comfortable with
thinking about George W Bush and Slobodan Milosevic in the same
category, the Somalian American recognizes W's tactics as akin to
General Aidid, the Haitian American recalls memories of
Duvalier.
1: It's horrible. Why are Americans dying for this?
2: It's all about oil.
3: I heard that Dick Cheney's company just got a contract to
rebuild Iraq after this war is over.
4: Bush is just trying to finish what his daddy started. It's
pathetic.
1: Bush. That guy didn't even really win the presidency. What
must that look like to the rest of the world?
2: Yeah, I'm glad that if I'm outside of the U.S., people won't
necessarily think I'm American.