Wednesday, February 23, 2005

When Democracy Failed - 2005: The Warnings of History

When Democracy Failed - 2005: The Warnings of History: "He was a simpleton, some said, a cartoon character of a man who saw things in black-and-white terms and didn't have the intellect to understand the subtleties of running a nation in a complex and internationalist world.

His coarse use of language - reflecting his political roots in a southernmost state - and his simplistic and often-inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric offended the aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well-educated elite in the government and media. And, as a young man, he'd joined a secret society with an occult-sounding name and bizarre initiation rituals that involved skulls and human bones.

Nonetheless, he knew the terrorist was going to strike (although he didn't know where or when), and he had already considered his response. When an aide brought him word that the nation's most prestigious building was ablaze, he verified it was the terrorist who had struck and then rushed to the scene and called a press conference.

'You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in history,' he proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building, surrounded by national media. 'This fire,' he said, his voice trembling with emotion, 'is the beginning.' He used the occasion - 'a sign from God,' he called it - to declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation for their evil deeds in their religion."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

When I read this article , I had this strange sense of doom come over me. These statements could have come straight from the mouth of George W.