While Washington Slept . . .

America woke several days ago to

the surprise of North Korean nuclear tests. But don’t you wonder why the
Administration didn’t see it coming? While Bush has been focusing on responding
to Iran’s nuclear potential,
North Korea
has been steadily developing . . .

.

America woke several days ago to
the surprise of North Korean nuclear tests. But don’t you wonder why the
Administration didn’t see it coming? While Bush has been focusing on responding
to Iran’s nuclear potential,
North Korea
has been steadily developing its capacity to do our allies immediate harm.
Finally, this week, Kim Jong-Il demonstrated that capacity, went on to threaten
Japan and South Korea, and
made plans to explode more devices. He then expressed an eagerness to export
nuclear technology to other nations, and Bush’s first comments were to rule out
a military response.

Bush waving an olive branch? Hmmm. Before the US
invaded Iraq, Bush convinced
America
that a strong suspicion that a nation possesses weapons of mass destruction
constitutes reason to invade it. And today, he’s steadily building a similar
case against Iran.
But North Korea possesses
nukes, and rattles its saber regularly, rattles it with enough conviction that Japan is considering ditching its
non-militarism, and China
now seeks sufficient armaments to respond to anything Kim Jong-Il might
attempt. I believe that call that an Arms Race, one that would be devastating
for the entire region. Yet Bush downplays this reality, and instead, continues
to focus on Iran’s
mere potential WMD capability. Is the President not very bright, or just
working for somebody else?

He’s working for somebody else.
President Bush is an Oil Man, and his years of public service will amount to a
blip on the screen of a lifelong quest to seek money in Oil. Visit http://www.mypetgoat.50megs.com/ to learn more about that. Not surprisingly,
when he brought his team to the White House, they were mostly lifelong oil or
related industry careerists of some sort (Visit the links listed below this
article). In fact, never in the history of America has a single industry’s
interests dominated a President’s agenda until Bush. Of course, the current Republican
congressional majority has a similar focus. Visit http://www.mypetgoat.50megs.com/opensecret.htm to learn how the oil and related industries
have come to increasingly dominate overall donations to the Republican party
over the last 10 years.

What’s at the root of America’s off-kilter foreign policy?
Single-industry dominance of Republican interests in Washington. We’re so used to this by now, we
don’t even see it. For a moment, then, let’s imagine a different industry
holding sway in the White House. Imagine America
electing a Silicon Valley executive for
President. He’d bring all his high-tech friends with him to the Washington, and the
halls of Congress suddenly start to look like a Microsoft convention. Then this
President starts centering our foreign policy around nations with strategic chip
manufacturing capabilities. We’d not stand for it. We’d say what you’re doing
doesn’t serve America’s
interest, only your own. Yes, that’s
what we’d do. But since we are so used to hearing liberals complain about “Big
Oil,” we don’t really pay attention to how much that industry’s agenda has come
to define America’s
goals around the world.

And, as a result of our blindness, one of our deepest
collective fears has come true: A near-madman possesses nukes. Is this what it
takes to get us to send the Republicans home this fall? I hope we finally do
it.

President Bush’s Oil-Friendly Cabinet:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1138009.stm

http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2001/01may/may01bushcc.html

http://crikey.com.au/articles/2003/01/31-oilandiraq.html

http://www.utne.com/cgi-bin/udt/im.display.printable?client.id=utne_web_specials&story.id=11232