31 October 2005
Traitors and patriots in Big Dubya's world
After reading the Washington Post's account of how and why a CIA agent's name was leaked to the press by the Bush administration, one can't help but conclude George Orwell's Big Brother is the role model for the Bush administration.
In Orwell's book, 1984, Big Brother is a government that reverses notions of good and bad, right and wrong, honourable and dishonourable, and most fundamentally, truth and lie. In order to maintain continuing subservience of a wretched populace, Big Brother manufactures wars, real and imagined, to evoke a sense of perpetual siege. Citizens daring to question Big Brother are declared traitors, tried and executed.
In 2005, we learn that two citizens in Dubya's world, dared to live up to their oaths to serve the nation and its Constitution. Joseph Wilson served his country as both an ambassador and on the National Security Council of the Clinton administration. His wife, Valerie Plame, was the CIA agent unmasked in a fit of spiteful neo-con pique by Big Dick Cheney's minion, the ridiculously named "Scooter" Libby.
Wilson's crime was to refute as false, Big Dubya's claims that Iraq obtained uranium ore from Niger. He did so after an investigative trip on behalf of the CIA. In retaliation, Big Dubya and his puppeteer, Big Dick, allowed or even worse, possibly directed Libby to tell some journalists that Wilson had been on a boondoggle jaunt to Niger instigated by his wife, and unmask Plame as a CIA agent. Big Dubya's and Big Dick's intent was to discredit Wilson and his claims by calling into question the circumstances and legitimacy of his jaunt to Niger.
Now I don't know about you, but I think the allegations of a boondoggle trip to Niger would have struck anyone with any idea of the world outside the US, as downright ridiculous and laughable. For goodness sake, Niger is a land-locked country in West Africa's Sahara region. It has lots of sand but certainly no surf! To put it politely, it's a crap hole for a vacation.
That people took Big Dubya's and Big Dick's smear seriously shows how geographically illiterate and travel challenged they are. In Orwellian speak, double plus ungood.
Instead, people should have asked what is the nature of true patriotism?
Is it to order men and women on an illegal and immoral invasion of another country based on a pack of lies? Is it to prosecute a war in which over 100,000 Iraqi civilians become casualties? Is it to visit desolation upon some country whose leader you dislike?
Or is it to seek and tell the truth, and to call to account those who would trash the fundamental principles upon which their nation was founded? Is it to consider war as the last resort in solving problems rather than the first?
Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame were two genuine patriots seeking to serve their nation and Constitution in spite of a corrupt and treasonous leadership. They understood that their ultimate allegiance is to the country and its Constitution rather than the president of the day engaged in illegal conduct.
But for their patriotism, they were punished by an Orwellian regime bent on prosecuting an illegal war, subverting the Constitution, lying to the nation, endangering a covert agent, and believing itself answerable to nobody.
That is truly treason.
In Orwell's book, 1984, Big Brother is a government that reverses notions of good and bad, right and wrong, honourable and dishonourable, and most fundamentally, truth and lie. In order to maintain continuing subservience of a wretched populace, Big Brother manufactures wars, real and imagined, to evoke a sense of perpetual siege. Citizens daring to question Big Brother are declared traitors, tried and executed.
In 2005, we learn that two citizens in Dubya's world, dared to live up to their oaths to serve the nation and its Constitution. Joseph Wilson served his country as both an ambassador and on the National Security Council of the Clinton administration. His wife, Valerie Plame, was the CIA agent unmasked in a fit of spiteful neo-con pique by Big Dick Cheney's minion, the ridiculously named "Scooter" Libby.
Wilson's crime was to refute as false, Big Dubya's claims that Iraq obtained uranium ore from Niger. He did so after an investigative trip on behalf of the CIA. In retaliation, Big Dubya and his puppeteer, Big Dick, allowed or even worse, possibly directed Libby to tell some journalists that Wilson had been on a boondoggle jaunt to Niger instigated by his wife, and unmask Plame as a CIA agent. Big Dubya's and Big Dick's intent was to discredit Wilson and his claims by calling into question the circumstances and legitimacy of his jaunt to Niger.
Now I don't know about you, but I think the allegations of a boondoggle trip to Niger would have struck anyone with any idea of the world outside the US, as downright ridiculous and laughable. For goodness sake, Niger is a land-locked country in West Africa's Sahara region. It has lots of sand but certainly no surf! To put it politely, it's a crap hole for a vacation.
That people took Big Dubya's and Big Dick's smear seriously shows how geographically illiterate and travel challenged they are. In Orwellian speak, double plus ungood.
Instead, people should have asked what is the nature of true patriotism?
Is it to order men and women on an illegal and immoral invasion of another country based on a pack of lies? Is it to prosecute a war in which over 100,000 Iraqi civilians become casualties? Is it to visit desolation upon some country whose leader you dislike?
Or is it to seek and tell the truth, and to call to account those who would trash the fundamental principles upon which their nation was founded? Is it to consider war as the last resort in solving problems rather than the first?
Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame were two genuine patriots seeking to serve their nation and Constitution in spite of a corrupt and treasonous leadership. They understood that their ultimate allegiance is to the country and its Constitution rather than the president of the day engaged in illegal conduct.
But for their patriotism, they were punished by an Orwellian regime bent on prosecuting an illegal war, subverting the Constitution, lying to the nation, endangering a covert agent, and believing itself answerable to nobody.
That is truly treason.
