Saddam Hussein used the Baathist party to control the Iraqi economy and society. Baathism was styled after the European fascism of the mid-20th century, supporting nationalism and industrial cooperation (monopoly). Fascist politicians do the bidding of industrialists and money managers, usually to the detriment of small business owners and average citizens. Fascist politicians transfer state assets to cronies through favorable contracts. They love arms manufacturers. Meanwhile, they pander to the workers with populist rhetoric and a veneer of a "regular guy" image. They make frequent appeals to patriotism to distract and cover up incompetence and nepotism.
Hey, this sounds a lot like what's going on in Washington, D.C.! Defense contractors, most notably Halliburton, are given huge, no-bid contracts. Opponents are labeled unpatriotic or even treasonous. Nepotism? Dad and brothers Bush have a made politics a successful family enterprise (their only business success). Who knows, maybe with good campaign managers, Saddam's sons might have won election as governors of large states. It doesn't stop with the Bush clan. Colin Powell's son chaired the FCC and the brothers McClellan are White House communications director and (former) head of the FDA. It doesn't even stop with legally recognized relationships. Dr. Rice has referred to W as her husband!
This may seem, ahem, heretical? Perhaps this is because fascism deifies the state as a hand of god, with the president as god's representative, spokesman, and highest priest. This is also aspect of Bushism. People say that they have abiding faith in Bush, a faith that withstands all earthly fact. Bush thinks it is enough for him to anoint his appointees with his assurance that they are a "good man" or woman. Even Reagan said that one should trust but verify. (Though that was in reference to the USSR. Reagan's own administration had freelance, extra-constitutional operatives whom he praised even as he fired them, like Colonel Ollie North and Admiral Poindexter.) Bush reduces this to just "trust", which is an appeal to faith, not reason.
Obviously, the scale and consequences of disobedience and disagreement are different. Fascists often kill opponents and their families and even destroy their villages. These are executive powers that even Cheney would probably find overreactions (but worth keeping among the other executive privileges, like torture). But it is revealing that when Paul O'Neil resigned as Secretary of the Treasury, after seeing the behavior of this administration, up close, he said that he was freer to criticize because he was "rich and an old man". Ditto Richard Clarke. Both were characterized as nuts and dismissed. Would-be critics who are less established, younger, and less rich, be warned: it's just you against us and we will crush you. This approach is responsible for miring our armed forces in Iraq and burdening our children with historic debts. Meanwhile, the chosen few are doing very well, thank you.
It’s an odd truth that we tend become what we hate - and hate others for what we dislike most about ourselves. Spielberg's current movie 'Munich' shows how the secret agents who hunted down the murderers of the Israeli athletes developed some of their opponents' calloused inhumanity. Here is the real cycle of hate: project, personify, objectify, vilify, ... and emulate. All the more reason to avoid hating. So let's not hate Buushism, let's just reject it.
Is G. W. Bush a Baathist? Given the family's obsession with Hussein, it's either take a Baathist label or risk being labeled closet Saddamites.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment