November 3, 2004
by Steve Osborn

The United States of America was once considered the bastion of democracy, its wonderful Constitution and Bill of Rights a model for emerging nations around the globe. In the 1930's and 40's, Americans were disgusted or horrified as Nazis in Germany systematically suborned their elections to gain power, then used a phonied up terrorist act to remove the civil rights portion of their constitution, for the people's own protection, of course.

The Nazis needed enemies to take the people's minds off a deteriorating standard of living in the Reich. They quickly found them in the communists and the Jews. They began to be rounded up and put into "protective Custody," or just plain disappeared. Soon it spread to any thinking person, union leaders, then ministers and priests. The trade unions were abolished, social legislation was erased and the worker soon had no rights at all except to work at what he was assigned at whatever wage was offered. Complaints led to a concentration camp. Hitler started preemptive wars to eliminate "threats" to the Reich. The rest of the world appeased him over and over again as, each time, he promised that was the end of his territorial ambitions. Eventually, he overstepped himself and the world rose up to fight back. A generation died to defeat him as the previous generation had died to defeat the Kaiser's army in WW-I.

Stalinist Russia was then seen as a threat as they consolidated Eastern Europe into part of the Soviet Union. Again, thousands or millions were killed or disappeared into gulags for having independent thoughts, which made them enemies of the state. More wars were fought to curb Communism in the world. In the United States, the McCarthy era dawned and thousands of Americans were persecuted and blacklisted for not following the party line here. Anyone could be accused as a communist by HUAC and they were ostracized, lost their jobs, families left them. Many committed suicide. Thousands of others were blacklisted and unemployable. Finally, McCarthy overreached himself, was exposed and faded into history. Everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief and we vowed that nothing like that would ever happen again. We reaffirmed the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The rights of man would not be trampled again, we had learned our lesson.

That was almost fifty years ago, but some of the same people who had authored the McCarthy era were biding their time. They and their heirs do not believe in any social contract. No Social Security, no Medicare, no minimum wage. They would like to do away with unions. To these people, there are no nations, no governments, no international laws, no treaties, there is just business. The only evil is to interfere with business and profits. These people nurtured an ignorant illiterate, with the classic behavior of a schoolyard bully, through his entire life, protected him through his various schemes, helped him dodge Vietnam service, absorbed his financial losses, destroyed his competition and now their investment has paid off. They made him President of the United States!

In 2001, he could not be elected due to the fact that many electoral frauds were found in Florida. As the recount appeared to be putting Gore in the lead, the Supreme Court was prevailed upon to halt the recount and appoint Bush President. So Bush became President by one vote, 5-4 in the Supreme Court and every American, Republican, Democrat or Independent was disenfranchised.

Through similar chicanery and irregularity he has been elected by a hair thin (1%) majority which is now claimed to be a mandate for approval of his policies. Virtually every person who has  provided the slightest voice of reason or restraint has been purged from his government. If he has his way, only sycophants and yes men will remain. Every check and balance which was designed to prevent a dictatorship has been or is being systematically removed. Congress is now little more than a rubber stamp Reichstag for Bush, approving whatever his office proposes.

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Policies of torture of prisoners; the establishment of gulags around the world, many in countries which have no restrictions on torture; policies allowing people to be picked up on mere suspicion, to be incarcerated in these gulags for life with no trial and no right to protest. These are all being approved in the name of national security. The FBI may enter mosques and pick up worshipers to be disappeared, presumably into these distant prisons. Their families have no right to know where they have been taken or what they are charged with. American Muslims are rapidly becoming German Jews.

In the past four years, suppression of dissent has become increasingly violent, with dissenters being removed to distant locations from the protest or arrested if they do not comply. Demonstrations are routinely broken up with gas, rubber bullets, dowels, and club swinging mounted police. People walking down the street are swept up in dragnets along with protestors, enclosed in plastic nets and hauled off to improvised detention centers. Their only crime? Being in the wrong place at the wrong time. How far are we from another Tianamen Square?

Most of this is ignored by the compliant media, which for the most part has become little more than a propaganda arm of the government. Goebbels said, "If you tell a big enough lie often enough, it becomes the truth." Once again he is being proved right by the lies and chicanery this government has gotten away with. The government is spending huge sums of our tax money to have its propaganda distributed as news in the compliant media. The assaults are on Medicare, Social Security, and any other social legislation which is being targeted. As it is impossible to vote out Social Security and other new deal legislation benefiting the American people, the simple expedient of bankrupting the nation has been started, giving the money to the rich in the form of tax breaks and incentives, and to the military to finance future conquests. When we can no longer afford social programs, they will, with tears and fanfare, join the dust of history and we will again become a nation of virtual serfs, beholden to business for whatever crumbs may fall our way.

Our hard won freedoms, guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights are being rapidly eroded by the "PATRIOT Act" and its successors, all in the name of fear and national security. 9/11 is constantly trotted out and replayed to keep us paralyzed, accompanied by the Bush mantra, "We will protect you, just give up your freedom to us. Let us wage war wherever we wish, lock up whomever we wish, and stop questioning us!"

The BushCo idea of international diplomacy is, "If other nations want to get along with us, then let them do what we tell them. It is for their own good."

Meanwhile, evidence is mounting that we are sending commandos into Iran to gather targeting information for our next preemptive adventure in the Middle East.

George Orwell, who has turned out to be more of a prophet than a novelist, pointed out much of what is currently happening. The Ministry of Truth altered records to reflect what the regime wanted to have happened, rather than what actually happened. Their mission was to convince the people that things were getting better while in actuality it was getting worse. If the food ration was lowered to a certain level, they had proof that it had been raised to that level, etc. It required the facility of doublethink to swallow this, but that, too, could be acquired, indeed must be acquired to survive. Orwell's National Security arm, the Thought Police, were everywhere, watching for any sign of unorthodoxy, any sign of dissatisfaction, any slight protest. The person or persons were disappeared, their entire existence was erased. They never were.

Orwell's Big Brother (BB) had an adversary, Immanuel Goldstein, who was to blame for everything that went wrong. He had been a trusted ally and member of the party, but then had become a traitor. Everything bad that happened was attributed to him. He was always sought after but never found. Occasionally he would send a communique which would be broadcast to send the people into a rage and concentrate their fury away from the party. Bush's Goldstein is Osama bin Laden, ex-ally, often sought, never found, who sends timely messages when the American people are beginning to question the aims of the Bush regime.

I would suggest that people, instead of watching Fox News, take up reading this winter. Read William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Berlin Diary. Read George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm. Read The Underground Empire by James Mills, Doubleday, 1986. Then see if what is going on today doesn't seem like deja vu.

Orwell's Oceania was always at war, with someone. This required the greatest sacrifices at home for the war effort. We have the endless war on terror which may be waged anywhere, against anyone, at home or abroad, citizen or alien. To fight this war, we need to marshal fear and suspicion. The enemy could be anyone, your neighbor, your boss, a relative. It could be you and you wouldn't even know it until you were picked up some night and sent far away.

Bush has assured himself that he will be surrounded only by people who will tell him what a great job he is doing and carry out any orders he may give. He is to receive no bad news, see no protests, receive no contrary reports. So all is well with the world and he can spend his time playing golf and chopping wood at his little ol' ranch in Crawford, Texas, while his minions spread chaos and death around the world. And devour our sustenance.

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Stephen M. Osborn [send him email] is a freelance writer living on Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an "Atomic Vet." (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll 1956, ) who has been very active working and writing for nuclear disarmament and world peace. He is a retired Fire Battalion Chief, lifelong sailor, writer, poet, philosopher, historian and former newspaper columnist.