BUSH'S ROME ON THE POTOMAC

by Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Col. Writ. 11/2/02]

"But crowns are crowns. When rulers meet, their embraces are of presence. Absent cries make empty phrases..." -- Wole Soyinka, "Mandela's Earth" (1988)

Have you ever wondered what politicians really think of each other?

Think of the last time you saw two politicians, say -- Bush and Russia's Putin, grinning like Cheshire cats -- at a press conference. Do you think they really care about each other?

Politicians are like actors for corporate and class interests.

It ain't personal; it's political.

When German parliamentary elections were held recently, the Social Democratic Party's Gerhard Schroder vocally opposed the Bush War in Iraq, and handily got re-elected. The SPD's justice minister, Herta Daubler-Gmelin, raised hackles on both sides of the Atlantic when she reportedly told metal workers, "Bush wants to divert attention from his domestic problems. It's a classic tactic. It's one that Hitler also used."

Official Washington and the corporate press had a conniption fit. Hitler!?! The SPD quickly removed Frau Daubler-Gmelin from her post.

But, one wonders, who knows Hitler, or his tactics, better than the Germans? Aren't they uniquely qualified to make that determination?

The Germans don't buy all of the American palaver about bringing "freedom," "democracy," and McDonald's Quarter Pounders (with cheese) to Iraq. Germans know that the 1929 Great Depression fueled the rise of Hitler's Nazi Party. With the German economy in the dumps, Hitler launched a racist campaign against Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs. Germany annexed Austria, and invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland, making it appear as if the Germans "liberated" these lands.

In other words, Hitler "want[ed] to divert attention from his domestic problems."

Ask yourself; would Bush rather address the sad state of the U.S. economy, the business scandals, or Iraq?

Every nation has its own interests.

The U.S. is interested in war only as tools to get that oil.

The Germans want the oil - period. War isn't in Germany's interest, and may threaten their future access.

Another SPD member commented that Bush acts like he's Caesar Augustus of the Roman Empire, and the German republic is the troubling imperial province of Germania, which needs to be disciplined (France must be imperial Gaul). Not surprisingly, this historical analogy didn't excite Atlantean umbrage, as did the Hitler reference.

Could it be because it's closer to the truth?

That a New Rome needs a New Caesar?

 

Text © copyright 2002 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

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