Saturday, May 29, 2010

Freedonia Goes To War!

In the most tragic sense, sometimes, I can see the making of a nightmarish futuristic version of the Marx Brothers Movie,  Duck Soup based on the Presidency of Geroge Bush Jr. In fact the night that the Iraq war started after we marched in the huge demonstration in Paris, we consoled ourselves by watching Duck Soup....
The true empty and inane idiocy of George Bush's grasp of reality comes to full bloom in this excerpt from Oliver Stone’s new documentary South of the Border, which interviews several left-wing leaders of Latin American countries. It includes a startling new allegation from Argentina’s former president Néstor Kirchner. During his interview with Stone, Kirchner said he once discussed global economic problems with former President George W. Bush. The former Argentine president says that when he suggested a new Marshall Plan, referring to the WW II-era European reconstruction plan, Bush “got angry” and suggested that “the Marshall Plan is a crazy idea of the Democrats.” Instead, Kirchner says, Bush suggested that “the best way to revitalize the economy is war”:
KIRCHNER: I said that a solution for the problems right now, I told Bush, is a Marshall Plan. And he got angry. He said the Marshall Plan is a crazy idea of the Democrats. He said the best way to revitalize the economy is war. And that the United States has grown stronger with war.
STONE: War, he said that?
KIRCHNER: He said that. Those were his exact words.
STONE: Is he suggesting that South America go to war?
KIRCHNER: Well, he was talking about the United States: ‘The Democrats had been wrong. All of the economic growth of the United States has been encouraged by wars.’ He said it very clearly.
Watch it:

It is worth noting that despite the prosecution of two major wars, there was very minimal net job growth during Bush’s tenure as president. And of course, he bequeathed an economy that suffered massive job losses in his wake.

5 comments:

mud_rake said...

INCREDIBLE!!!!!

And he was re-elected??????

Does this at last prove the point that I so often pounded that the American electorate is one of the most ignorant masses on the planet?

Engineer of Knowledge said...

Hello Microdot,
What a great post...and yet so sadly true.

Hello Muddy,
I cannot say it any better than you just did. How SO easily, SO may, can be SO duped in believing the conservative crap….and the result is a destroyed economy for everyone in the U.S…..and Bush/Cheney/Halliburton walked away with their large cash rewards on the tax payer’s dime.

microdot said...

You know, I have never really been a fan of Oliver Stones work. There was a tedious workmanship quality to his political biographies..and hsi Doors movie? Fergit it!
In fact I was really upset with his attempt to prtray George Bush Jr...in his last film W...sure, hetried to ridicule him but still, at the same time, it was a revisionist, almost affectionate bio pic....
And in the context of still being current reality...it wasn't really historical...It pissed me off...
But this movie, South Of The Border is a more honest attempt at a documentary and from what I see, Stone seems to "get it'.

steve said...

This was an amazing post! It doesn't really show GWB to be ignorant, what it shows is the lack of depth to his intelligence, and a lack of depth to his understanding of history and the economic forces shaped by history. In a way, GWB is right.. there are instances in history where warfare is an Economic Plus.. A war economy can be very beneficial to the warring party. WW2 is the prime example - and I believe, this is what GWB was alluding to. WW2 was a huge Plus for the United States economically and politically. It's the event that pushed us into being the world super power. But to take that global war against very real and threatening enemies as a template, and then apply it to every geopolitical situation.. Umm no can do partnerino.. The only way a war can be a plus is if you mobilize the entire economy and the entire population in war production. In that instance, you have to create the infrastructure and the techno-logic prowess to efficiently feed the war effort.
The only way to make that happen is if the Nation is materially threatened in a real obvious way.. which wasn't the case with either Bush war.. And then you have to wage Total War on your opponent.. Which was morally unthinkable with these two wars. Neither situation existed for either Bush war - so therefore the wars became, and still are - a huge sapp on the economy and power of the nation. Bush had a little bit of knowledge, and used it to show what a dunce he was.

That's why I don't understand why we can't mobilize in a way we do for major wars.. like WW2, for the common good? Like total war against fossil fuels! At the height of WW2, a liberty ship would take 16 days from laying down the keel, to launch. Why can't we apply that same warfighting industrial prowess to windmills, or gen 4 thorium reactors (i know.. i know)?

microdot said...

Great comment Steve...
That is what I believe, the concept that we can accomplish a goal and generate jobs, create an economy by focusing the way a nation focuses to win a war....
We have a priority, and that is to save our planet and develop alternative energy. The events of the last month have really pushed that button for a lot of people!