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Reflections
on Bush's NBC Interview
By Fubara David-West
President George Bush appeared on the NBC
Sunday talk-show, Meet the Press today (February 8, 2003) and
demonstrated why Nigerians, nay Africans, should not feel
terribly devastated, when their political world seems to abhor
accountability, especially when the national chief executive is
on the hot seat. This was highlighted by the President's
attempt to blame his order on US troops to invade Iraq, on the
intelligence reports he had at the time. The host of
the show did not press the President with this crucial question:
When to your knowledge was the first time, you, your
Vice-President or other administration officials first
discuss going to war with Iraq?
In places like the United States, a potent
repellent of administrative accountability, the shield of
patriotism could be called up to disperse much of the
devastating facts surrounding a controversy. That could be
further strengthened by the resolve of partisan politicians to
rally around their president, to make sure that his/her real and
imagined coattails remain intact. That rallying could
render the opposition virtually powerless, if those rallying
around the president could portray whatever the opposition says
or does as merely partisan sour grapes. All of these
account for the reason why purely mathematical analysis of the
political world are often wrong.
President Bush insisted that his
administration had no choice but to invade Iraq and remove Saddam
Hussein from power, because the Iraqi leader presented a danger
to the United States, "in the context of the war on
terror." At a point Bush even stated that unlike the
case in North Korea and Iran, in Iraq the US "had run the
diplomatic course." Containment does not work with a
mad man, he said, "remember, he had used weapons of mass
destruction against his own people."
Tim Russert did not press the President by
pointing out that at the time Saddam's regime committed that
atrocity, Saddam was still a friend of the United States, and
the US did not even show its outrage by breaking off diplomatic
relations with the Saddam regime. Neither did he
press him to explain how Iraq became such an urgent mission in
the "war on terrorism," when the clear source of the
terrorist attacks on the US, Afghanistan was yet to be
completely pacified; when the Al Qaida leader, Osama Ben Ladin
was still hiding out between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and still
carrying out operations against US interests around the world.
Russert did not also press the president by
reminding him that the US had in fact not run the diplomatic
course. The UN weapons inspectors were still doing their
work in Iraq. They had just destroyed some missiles, which
the UN determined were banned under past Iraq agreements with
the UN, including the convention that ended the Kuwait war a
decade before. The US ordered the UN inspectors out in order to
start the war.
What about the declaration from his Vice
President before the war that the US would be welcomed as
liberators. How does the president relate that to what we
have on the ground today, with daily attacks on US occupation
forces? Said the President: "I think we are
welcomed in Iraq."
What was the President's reaction to the
chief US weapons inspector, David Kay's declaration that there
is no evidence that Iraq possessed the WMDs that became the
ultimate cause of war? President Bush insisted that the
weapons would be found. What about his declaration before
the war (on March 17, 2003) that he had no doubt that Iraq
possessed WMDs? The President said he based his decisions
on the best intelligence available to him at that time.
Tim Russert did not even bring up the point
that one of the reasons the administration stated that immediate
action was necessary was the point that they rejected the Iraqi
declaration of their WMDs to the UN, which indicated that the
country's WMDs had been destroyed in compliance with the UN
inspection regime. If it turns out that the Iraqi declaration
was accurate, it will call for a thorough investigation of how
the administration came to its certitude, which came hours after
the Iraqi declaration, that the entirety of the documentation
was false.
"War President"
The host of the program, Tim Russert tried
softly to press the President, but at every turn an observant
viewer would realize that Russert did not play the role of a
tough interviewer. My take on his timidity was that the President
played a latent power card at the beginning of the interview,
when he reminded viewers "I am a war President."
Of course, Russert would not question him on
his definition of "a war President." If the
contemporary definition of the term, which serves the
administration famously is accepted, then it follows that all
British Prime Ministers, since that country started battling
Irish terrorism have been War Prime Ministers, just as Winston
Churchill had been when he was battling Nazi Germany. This
kind of a disingenuous stance has been a potent and unchallenged
weapon in the hands of the administration. It was one
reason why Congress easily passed that modern blight on American
freedom, the Patriot Act, and the resolution to give the President
the authority to go to war in Iraq without a Congressional
declaration of war.
In spite of all of the troubling issues
surrounding the decision to go to war in Iraq, President Bush
continues to be quite popular. Forced by the intrepid
voice of the Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean,
other Democratic Party voices are being heard, still testing the
waters on how best to attack the record of "a war President,"
and that might have brought down the President's popularity a
little bit. However, come Election Day in November, it
will not be a shock if President Bush is reelected.
Comparative Studies
Comparative studies are very useful in
putting what might seem like polity-specific phenomena into some
global context. That is one reason why such studies of
contemporary events in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere
are very useful to the peoples of young, developing democracies
in places like Africa. It is possible that the people will
not feel so politically hopeless, if they realize that some of
the problems they encounter in their political world are also
confronted at varying levels by the more developed
democracies.
When some Nigerians feel politically
devastated, because a president whom they consider a complete
failure gets reelected, and continues to stand by policies and
management patterns that they find absolutely disastrous, they
will realize that such is not an earth-shattering reality, if
they also know that in places like the United States of America,
the people often have to also contend with similar
situations.
What forms the thread of commonality is the
human component of politics and the fact that the institutional
appurtenances of the authoritative allocation of value are
limited by that component in virtually all complex settings.
Read the words of the distinguished professor
of Business Administration, Warren Bettis, which were written to
describe a reality in the United States:
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The fact is that there are too many
predicaments, too many ironies, polarities, dichotomies,
dualities, ambivalences, paradoxes, contradictions,
confusions, complexities, and messes, and so we
naturally incline toward people with answers--without
even bothering to wonder what the questions, the
real questions are. But until we begin asking the
right questions, we cannot possibly come up with the
right answers. Rather than trying to figure out
the questions, however, we accept any answer, no matter
how spurious, or find a convenient villain ("Why
Leaders Can't Lead," 1989). |
Those words, quite uncannily can describe the
situation in places like Nigeria, where for much of the nation's
post-independence history, the people accepted a fateful answer
presented by its military, without bothering to ask what
"the real questions" were. Unfortunately, the
pattern continues even today.
However, there is hope if the tragic policy experiences
of the US on the Iraq question, and their interconnection with
politics are taken into account.
Fubara David-West, Contributing Editor
for USAfricaonline.com, is a freelance writer living in Dallas,
Texas, USA.. He received his B.S. (summa cum laude) in
political science from University of Wisconsin (Superior) and
his M.P.A, from the University of Oklahoma (Norman). He has also
done Graduate Studies at the University of Texas (Austin). He
has written for many Nigerian publications, including the Nigerian
Tide. His other writings include "FESTAC Must Be
Relevant" in Cyprian Ekwensi (ed.1977) The Real Life of
Military Politics; "Can Africa Life a Future Without
War?" (An Open Letter to Nelson Mandela,
USAfricaonline.com, 2002).
Several analytical articles on the diplomatic drama
leading to the Iraq war for Africa-Politics, NaijaPolitics,
ChatAfrik etc., including "Ideology Versus National
Interest, "which argued that the Iraq policy was a case of
ideology taking precedence over national interest, and that the
congressional authority given to the president by the Congress
to take military action without a congressional declaration of
war was an act that would have these crop of leaders condemned
by the Founding Fathers.
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American Creation
Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding
of the Republic
By Joseph J. Ellis
This subtle,
brilliant examination of the period
between the War of Independence and the
Louisiana Purchase puts Pulitzer-winner
Ellis (Founding
Brothers)
among the finest of America's narrative
historians. Six stories, each centering
on a significant creative achievement or
failure, combine to portray often flawed
men and their efforts to lay the
republic's foundation. Set against the
extraordinary establishment of the most
liberal nation-state in the history of
Western Civilization... in the most
extensive and richly endowed plot of
ground on the planet are the terrible
costs of victory, including the
perpetuation of slavery and the cruel
oppression of Native Americans. Ellis
blames the founders' failures on their
decision to opt for an evolutionary
revolution, not a risky severance with
tradition (as would happen, murderously,
in France, which necessitated
compromises, like retaining slavery).
Despite the injustices and brutalities
that resulted, Ellis argues, this
deferral strategy was a profound insight
rooted in a realistic appraisal of how
enduring social change best happens.
Ellis's lucid, illuminating and ironic
prose will make this a holiday season
hit.—
Publishers Weekly /
American Creation (Joseph Ellis
interview) |
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The Last Holiday: A Memoir
By Gil Scott Heron
Shortly after we republished The Vulture and The Nigger Factory, Gil started to tell me about The Last Holiday, an account he was writing of a multi-city tour that he ended up doing with Stevie Wonder in late 1980 and early 1981. Originally Bob Marley was meant to be playing the tour that Stevie Wonder had conceived as a way of trying to force legislation to make Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday. At the time, Marley was dying of cancer, so Gil was asked to do the first six dates. He ended up doing all 41. And Dr King's birthday ended up becoming a national holiday ("The Last Holiday because America can't afford to have another national holiday"), but Gil always felt that Stevie never got the recognition he deserved and that his story needed to be told. The first chapters of this book were given to me in New York when Gil was living in the Chelsea Hotel. Among the pages was a chapter called Deadline that recounts the night they played Oakland, California, 8 December; it was also the night that John Lennon was murdered. Gil uses Lennon's violent end as a brilliant parallel to Dr King's assassination and as a biting commentary on the constraints that sometimes lead to newspapers getting things wrong. —Jamie Byng, Guardian / Gil_reads_"Deadline" (audio) |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update
7 March 2012
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