Toward a New Beginning

March 7, 2003

There are some truly evil regimes in the world, and they must be stopped. They seek to acquire and stockpile weapons of mass destruction. They threaten other nations with invasion to control more oil. They have little concern for civilian casualties. They spurn not only world opinion, but the will of the United Nations. Dissidents in these countries are carefully monitored and often abducted by government agents, held incommunicado, beaten up, and sometimes tortured. Their intelligence agencies hatch assassination plots against foreign leaders. They are so devious and paranoid that they spy on even their closest allies. They came to power through their family's oil dynasties and fraudulent elections.

These are the shameful facts about the current regimes in Baghdad AND Washington. Unfortunately, the Bush administration shares even more disturbing tendencies with Bin Laden’s organization only. They both follow fundamentalist ideologies and seek to impose them on others. They both eagerly engage in pre-emptive attacks against the economies of other nations. They are both bringing us to the brink of Armageddon.

And finally, there are a few traits that set the Bush administration apart from all other regimes on Earth. US "defense" companies sell more weapons to countries that violate human rights than any other nation. The Bush administration enthusiastically continues Clinton’s efforts to liberalize international trade, bringing all resources including water under the control of giant corporations and re-structuring the economies of third world nations to be centered around exporting sweatshop products to the United States. Their idea of diplomacy is ultimatums, threats, and calling foreign leaders pygmies and cowards. They define an imminent threat to their national security as any nation that might acquire effective weapons and who could make friends with groups that are interested in using them against the US; In other words, every nation on Earth. Their published military policy threatens the first use of nuclear weapons against a wide variety of nations, including China.

It should come as no surprise that even in Britain, our closest ally, polls show that the Bush administration is behaving like a global bully and may be the biggest threat to world peace.

The predicament we’re now in has been developing for decades. The US is now the world’s only superpower. Corporate excess has reached such an extreme that the monopolies of the 1930’s have re-merged and have purchased nearly all of the media and politicians. Prophecies are being self-fulfilled by an alcoholic born-again Christian with a knack for destroying every business venture he’s ever been involved in. It was only a matter of time before the vast armies of this empire were sent out to conquer the cradle of Civilization.

At this point, there may be no way to avoid calamity, but there is reason to hope for the future. We can react to the astronomical arrogance of our appointed leaders by empowering our local communities and individuals with a respect for all life and a fair global perspective. The leaders will either be part of the solution, or they will be irrelevant. All empires rise and fall, and the most virulent ones have shared similar idols throughout history. We stand at the dawn of a new beginning oriented around the real needs of people living in harmony and understanding.