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News :: Elections & Legislation : International Relations : Iraq : Regime : Right Wing |
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Notes on Bush's Speech to the Republican National Convention |
Current rating: 0 |
by Rahul Mahajan
(No verified email address) |
03 Sep 2004
Modified: 07:09:20 PM |
Few Democrats can match the Republicans when it comes to dissociating from reality. George W. Bush's performance last night was something to behold, a combination of rehashed non-arguments from the buildup to the war and hallucinatory rhetoric about what's actually happening in Iraq and the Middle East today, building up to a grand, messianic finale in which he seemed at times to forget that he was a presidential candidate rather than Jesus on the Mount.
Below is an annotated response to the foreign policy portion of his speech. |
As columnist David Saransohn of the Oregonian points out (http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q27732639), there is a curious gap in all the talk at the Republican National Convention:
At this convention, you don't hear much about Iraq.
That is, Iraq the country.
You hear constantly about Iraq the symbol, the demonstration of American resolve, the place that will be a beacon of democracy throughout the Middle East and the Muslim world. Speakers repeatedly invoke Iraq as a stage set for President Bush's determination, a symbol of a rebuilding world.
As he doesn't point out, it's also true that you hear almost nothing about Iraq the country from Democrats; for them, it's at best a symbol of Bush's lies, nothing more. For John Kerry, it's just a distraction from the real issue: Vietnam.
Still, few Democrats can match the Republicans when it comes to dissociating from reality. George W. Bush's performance last night was something to behold, a combination of rehashed non-arguments from the buildup to the war and hallucinatory rhetoric about what's actually happening in Iraq and the Middle East today, building up to a grand, messianic finale in which he seemed at times to forget that he was a presidential candidate rather than Jesus on the Mount.
Below is an annotated response to the foreign policy portion of his speech.
BUSH: Today, the government of a free Afghanistan is fighting terror; Pakistan is capturing terrorist leaders; Saudi Arabia is making raids and arrests; Libya is dismantling its weapons programs; the army of a free Iraq is fighting for freedom; and more than three-quarters of Al Qaeda's key members and associates have been detained or killed. We have led, many have joined, and America and the world are safer.
RESPONSE: What exactly makes Afghanistan "free" today is unclear. Most of Afghanistan is in the hands of the exact same warlords who ruled before the rise of the Taliban (which was so meteoric partly because of anger against some of the warlords' excesses) and in southern Afghanistan the Taliban is resurgent. The presidential election planned for October comes only after repeated U.S. subversion of democratic processes in Afghanistan, most notably the hijacking of the loya jirga in June 2004, where the favored candidate of the delegates, Zahir Shah, was pressured to resign so that delegates could be presented with the handpicked Hamid Karzai as a fait accompli (http://www.progressive.org/sept03/maha0903.html). Karzai is the only feasible candidate, which is why the election is being allowed to proceed; legislative elections have been delayed until next spring.
In Pakistan, where a handful of al-Qaeda leaders have been captured (more than have been captured in Afghanistan), Islamist parties for the first time in the country's history, forged a united front, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal. In the October 2002 national parliamentary elections, the MMA got 11% of the vote, roughly three times what all Islamist parties combined used to get in national elections.
As for the claim about al-Qaeda, I didn't know that Bush had an exhaustive listing of "key members and associates." Even were the claim true, it is essentially meaningless in the face of the massive proliferation of new organizations dedicated to similar attacks and the reorientation of existing larger Islamist organizations toward similar attacks.
The world is far less safe, as is proved almost daily. America is almost certainly less safe as well.
BUSH: This progress involved careful diplomacy, clear moral purpose and some tough decisions. And the toughest came on Iraq. We knew Saddam Hussein's record of aggression and support for terror. We knew his long history of pursuing, even using, weapons of mass destruction. And we know that Sept. 11 requires our country to think differently. We must, and we will, confront threats to America before it is too late.
In Saddam Hussein, we saw a threat. Members of both political parties, including my opponent and his running mate, saw the threat, and voted to authorize the use of force. We went to the United Nations Security Council, which passed a unanimous resolution demanding the dictator disarm, or face serious consequences. Leaders in the Middle East urged him to comply. After more than a decade of diplomacy, we gave Saddam Hussein another chance, a final chance, to meet his responsibilities to the civilized world. He again refused, and I faced the kind of decision that comes only to the Oval Office, a decision no president would ask for, but must be prepared to make. Do I forget the lessons of Sept. 11 and take the word of a madman, or do I take action to defend our country? Faced with that choice, I will defend America every time.
RESPONSE: Bush consistently implies that his choice was between trusting Hussein and war. In fact, Iraq had been undergoing intrusive weapons inspections for months before the attack. It allowed inspectors into the country in November 2002; UNMOVIC head Hans Blix withdrew the inspectors only in March 2003 after Bush stated that a U.S. attack was imminent. It turned over 12,000 pages of documents to comply with UNSCR 1441's disclosure requirements. At the time inspectors withdrew, Iraq was destroying its al-Samoud 2 missiles, as prescribed by UNMOVIC, because they were slightly over the range limits in some tests -- information that was actually contained in that original disclosure.
Weapons inspectors had been absent from Iraq since December of 1998 when they were withdrawn by UNSCOM head Richard Butler at the urging of the Clinton administration before the "Desert Fox" bombing campaign, which was very clearly an attempt at "regime change" (http://www.empirenotes.org/fsddesertfox.html) rather than disarmament.
Both Hans Blix and Mohammed el-Baradei of the IAEA expressed confidence that continuing inspections might be able to account for all issues not fully resolved in a matter of months. Instead, after the invasion, the United States left potentially dangerous facilities like the al-Tuwaitha nuclear reactor site unsecured for months -- had Hussein been working with al-Qaeda or even contemplating it, ample time for terrorists to seize large amounts of low-grade radioactive material.
BUSH: Because we acted to defend our country, the murderous regimes of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban are history, more than 50 million people have been liberated and democracy is coming to the broader Middle East.
In Afghanistan, terrorists have done everything they can to intimidate people. Yet more than 10 million citizens have registered to vote in the October presidential election, a resounding endorsement of democracy. Despite ongoing acts of violence Iraq now has a strong prime minister, a national council and national elections are scheduled for January. Our nation is standing with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq because when America gives its word, America must keep its word.
RESPONSE: Iraq's "strong prime minister," Ayad Allawi, was chosen in the most anti-democratic manner possible, by fiat of the U.S. occupying forces. Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. special envoy who at least consulted with the major political players while trying to arrange the "transfer of sovereignty," ended up being totally sidelined and denouncing (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0603-01.htm) L. Paul Bremer, then head of the CPA, as the "dictator of Iraq."
Allawi has since established his "democratic" credentials by reportedly shooting six Iraqis in cold blood (http://www.counterpunch.org/mcgeough07162004.html), warning journalists in Najaf that they might be killed if they stayed to cover the assault, and even having the Iraqi police bring journalists in to threaten them. He's made clear repeatedly his ambition to be Saddam-lite.
The national council that was recently selected came into being in almost exactly the way that the Afghan loya jirga in 2002 "picked" Hamid Karzai. 19 members of the 100-member council came from the U.S.-picked Governing Council, one of its quid pro quos for agreeing to the "transfer." The other 81 were ratified at a national conference of 1200 delegates from around the country, representing a fair but hardly complete cross-section of political forces (no representation from the armed resistance).
But instead of open debate, candidates running, and an actual vote, the delegates were confronted with a pre-selected slate of 81 candidates (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5748074/), picked in back-room dealings between the major political parties that collaborate with the U.S. occupation. Efforts by smaller parties and independent groups (not affiliated with the occupation) to at least put up another alternative slate fell through at the last minute and the slate was declared as elected by conference organizers without even putting it to a pro forma formal ratification.
This is not democracy by any stretch of the imagination. But it is what the Bush administration is creating in Iraq, for the simple reason that Iraqi public opinion is overwhelmingly opposed to the occupation and there is no chance that even cosmetic demonstration elections would turn out the way the administration wants. If this doesn't change by January, and there is no reason to believe it will, expect those elections to be either postponed indefinitely or sidestepped by maneuvers like those at the national conference.
BUSH: As importantly, we are serving a vital and historic cause that will make our country safer. Free societies in the Middle East will be hopeful societies, which no longer feed resentments and breed violence for export. Free governments in the Middle East will fight terrorists instead of harboring them, and that helps us keep the peace.
So our mission in Afghanistan and Iraq is clear: We will help new leaders to train their armies and move toward elections and get on the path of stability and democracy as quickly as possible. And then our troops will return home with the honor they have earned.
Our troops know the historic importance of our work. One Army specialist wrote home: "We are transforming a once sick society into a hopeful place. The various terrorist enemies we are facing in Iraq," he continued, "are really aiming at you back in the United States. This is a test of will for our country. We soldiers of yours are doing great and scoring victories in confronting the evil terrorists." That young man is right; our men and women in uniform are doing a superb job for America.
RESPONSE: The constant repetition that the occupation's enemies in Iraq are "terrorists" is wearing awfully thin. When the United States assaulted Fallujah mercilessly, with snipers killing civilians in droves (about 800-1000 people, roughly ¾ of whom were civilians, were killed in the assault http://www.empirenotes.org/fallujah.html), bombing its power plant and deliberately shutting down its main hospital (http://www.empirenotes.org/hospitals.html) and people of the town fought back, that was not "terrorism." In fact, armed assault against an occupying military force is not terrorism; the right of armed resistance is almost universally recognized, most particularly in a 1987 General Assembly resolution that singles out military occupations and "colonial and racist regimes" as legitimate targets of armed resistance.
Similarly, the Mahdi Army are not terrorists; they weren't even the ones that provoked their two armed showdowns with the U.S. military.
Interestingly, the United States negotiated a withdrawal with the mujaheddin of Fallujah, which, given the constant refrain that they are terrorists means that Bush negotiated with terrorists. Fortunately, even Kerry, overdosing heavily on militarism these days, has not yet gone there.
BUSH: Tonight I want to speak to all of them and to their families: You are involved in a struggle of historic proportion. Because of your service and sacrifice, we are defeating the terrorists where they live and plan, and you're making America safer. Because of you, women in Afghanistan are no longer shot in a sports stadium. Because of you, the people of Iraq no longer fear being executed and left in mass graves. Because of you, the world is more just and will be more peaceful. We owe you our thanks, and we owe you something more. We will give you all the resources, all the tools, and all the support you need for victory.
Again, my opponent and I have different approaches. I proposed, and the Congress overwhelmingly passed, $87 billion in funding needed by our troops doing battle in Afghanistan and Iraq. My opponent and his running mate voted against this money for bullets and fuel and vehicles and body armor. When asked to explain his vote, the senator said, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." Then he said he was "proud" of his vote. Then, when pressed, he said it was a "complicated" matter. There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat.
RESPONSE: Of course, Kerry and Edwards, both of whom voted to support the war, were completely in favor of the $66 billion for direct military expenses. They just didn't want the $18.4 billion for reconstruction (which, it turns out, was a sham http://www.empirenotes.org/july04.html#05jul042) to be given to Iraq; first, they wanted Iraq to pay back half of it (while supporting the idea that other countries should forgive Iraq's debt), then to increase taxes on the very wealthiest in partial compensation.
BUSH: Our allies also know the historic importance of our work. About 40 nations stand beside us in Afghanistan and some 30 in Iraq. I deeply appreciate the courage and wise counsel of leaders like Prime Minister Howard, President Kwasniewski, Prime Minister Berlusconi and, of course, Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Again my opponent takes a different approach. In the midst of war he has called America's allies, quote, a "coalition of the coerced and the bribed." That would be nations like Great Britain, Poland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, El Salvador, Australia and others - allies that deserve the respect of all Americans, not the scorn of a politician.
RESPONSE: Of course, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, and the Netherlands are neither coerced nor bribed. Japan has been coerced with regard to U.S. foreign policy ever since V-J Day. El Salvador under a right-wing government is pretty much a direct colony of the United States. Poland and other countries of Eastern Europe have been coerced and bribed by "NATO expansion" (a process that started in Clinton's second term) and U.S. arms sales, military aid, and joint training. Rampant attempts at coercion and bribery (http://www.ips-dc.org/iraq/COERCED.pdf) leading up to a proposed U.N. Security Council vote on a war resolution were actually unsuccessful.
Of course, Italy, Spain, Poland, etc. joined the coalition in express defiance of the will of, in each case, roughly 90% of the population. But that seems irrelevant to both Bush and Kerry.
BUSH: I respect every soldier from every country who serves beside us in the hard work of history. America is grateful and America will not forget.
The people we have freed won't forget either. Not long ago seven Iraqi men came to see me in the Oval Office. They had X's branded into their foreheads and their right hands had been cut off by Saddam Hussein's secret police, the sadistic punishment for imaginary crimes. During our emotional visit, one of the Iraqi men used his new prosthetic hand to slowly write out in Arabic a prayer for God to bless America.
I am proud that our country remains the hope of the oppressed and the greatest force for good on this earth. Others understand the historic importance of our work. The terrorists know. They know that a vibrant, successful democracy at the heart of the Middle East will discredit their radical ideology of hate. They know that men and women with hope and purpose and dignity do not strap bombs on their bodies and kill the innocent.
RESPONSE: The United States is right now the principal force opposing democracy in Iraq. The reason is, contrary to the hallucinatory rhetoric, the Bush administration is well aware that more democracy in the Middle East would inevitably lead to more opposition to U.S. policies.
BUSH: The terrorists are fighting freedom with all their cunning and cruelty because freedom is their greatest fear. And they should be afraid, because freedom is on the march. I believe in the transformational power of liberty: The wisest use of American strength is to advance freedom.
RESPONSE: At this point, he has completely burst the surly bonds of rationality. The starkly eschatological contrast drawn between the champions of freedom and, I suppose, the people who want to be enslaved, is reminiscent of nothing so much as Paul Nitze's NSC-68, the defining document of the "Cold War" and the confrontational policies that drove the world to the brink of disaster so many times.
BUSH: As the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq seize the moment, their example will send a message of hope throughout a vital region. Palestinians will hear the message that democracy and reform are within their reach, and so is peace with our good friend Israel. Young women across the Middle East will hear the message that their day of equality and justice is coming. Young men will hear the message that national progress and dignity are found in liberty, not tyranny and terror. Reformers and political prisoners and exiles will hear the message that their dream of freedom cannot be denied forever. And as freedom advances, heart by heart and nation by nation, America will be more secure and the world more peaceful.
America has done this kind of work before, and there have always been doubters. In 1946, 18 months after the fall of Berlin to allied forces, a journalist in The New York Times wrote this: "Germany is a land in an acute stage of economic, political and moral crisis. European capitals are frightened. In every military headquarters, one meets alarmed officials doing their utmost to deal with the consequences of the occupation policy that they admit has failed." End quote. Maybe that same person is still around, writing editorials.
RESPONSE: This comparison is illegitimate. Most of Europe and large parts of Asia were wrecked by World War 2 and it was difficult or impossible to mobilize the resources to fix it. A better comparison is with the rebuilding by Saddam's government after the Gulf War. The devastation to infrastructure was greater (in fact, electrical power, bridges, and civilian industry were systematically targeted http://www.scn.org/ccpi/WashPostWarDamage23Jun91.html) Iraq had no oil revenue and no ability to buy spare parts and was forced to do repairs by cannibalization, but in large parts at least of the capital city electricity and phone service was restored within three months. The United States, with no such impediments and an abundance of resources, did less to restore such services in a year. As late as June 2004, average electricity production was less than it had been before the war (4300 megawatts as opposed to 4500 http://www.harpers.org/).
The United States basically hasn't spent any money (except some of Iraq's http://www.empirenotes.org/july04.html#05jul042) on reconstruction.
BUSH: Fortunately, we had a resolute president named Truman, who with the American people persevered, knowing that a new democracy at the center of Europe would lead to stability and peace. And because that generation of Americans held firm in the cause of liberty, we live in a better and safer world today.
The progress we and our friends and allies seek in the broader Middle East will not come easily, or all at once. Yet Americans of all people should never be surprised by the power of liberty to transform lives and nations. That power brought settlers on perilous journeys, inspired colonies to rebellion, ended the sin of slavery and set our nation against the tyrannies of the 20th century. We were honored to aid the rise of democracy in Germany and Japan, Nicaragua, Central Europe and the Baltics. And that noble story goes on.
RESPONSE: Germany, Japan, Central Europe, and the Baltics are a longer story, but the claim that the United States aided the "rise of democracy" in Nicaragua is rich.
In 1984, while under assault by a terrorist army created, funded, equipped, and trained by a superpower that was, as Ronald Reagan pointed out, only two days' drive away, Nicaragua had what were acclaimed by all impartial observers as free and fair elections. The contra war and U.S. policy consistently militated against, not for, democracy.
The 1990 election in which the Sandinistas lost sets some kind of record for external intervention, short of a coup. This included massive coercion by the United States, which made it clear that reelection of the Sandinistas would mean restarting the contra war; open offers of preferential trade agreements and aid made directly to Violeta Chamorro, but contingent on her being elected; and the spending by the United States of roughly eight times as much money per person in Nicaragua on the election as Bush spent per person in the United States on his own reelection campaign.
Bush was no doubt correct when, in the concluding paragraphs of his speech, he said that millions in the Middle East hope, often silently, for liberty. He seems, however, to have paid no attention to the fact that for the vast majority of them one of the primary components of that liberty is freedom from the heavy hand of the empire.
Rahul Mahajan is publisher of Empire Notes. He has been to Iraq twice in recent months and reported from Fallujah while it was under siege. His latest book, "Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond," covers U.S. policy on Iraq, deceptions about weapons of mass destruction, the plans of the neoconservatives, and the face of the new Bush imperial policies, as well as continuities between Democratic and Republican policies on Iraq. |
See also:
http://www.empirenotes.org
|
Copyright by the author. All rights reserved. |
Comments
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Bush: It's About Me and My Crusade |
by David Corn
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
03 Sep 2004
|
It's official: the 2004 campaign is a referendum on whether the United States should wage a crusade to bring liberty to the repressed of the world--particularly in the Middle East--in order to heed the call of God and to protect the United States from terrorists who target America because they despise freedom. Or, at least, that is how George W. Bush would like the contest to be framed.
In his acceptance speech, Bush pushed the message of the week--it's the war, stupid--to lofty heights. Like the speakers of previous nights, he fully embraced the war in Iraq. But while John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Zell Miller, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Laura Bush depicted the war as an action necessary for safeguarding America, Bush also placed it within the context of an even grander mission. "America," he proclaimed from that altar-like podium, "is called to lead the cause of freedom in the new century....Freedom is not America's gift to the world. It is the Almighty God's gift." (Minutes earlier, New York Governor George Pataki described Bush as the Supreme Being's gift to the United States: "He is one of those men God and fate somehow lead to the fore in times of challenge.")
This rhetoric was nothing new for Bush. He has made these points previously. But at the end of a week in which the war was presented as the Number One reason to vote for Bush, he chose to highlight the messianic side of his military action in Iraq. It was this part of the speech that soared. During the first 35 minutes, Bush ticked off a laundry list of domestic initiatives, as Bill Clinton liked to do. But Bush did so without the enthusiasm that Clinton displayed when discussing such subjects. It was as if this was the obligatory portion of the evening; Bush had to talk about something other than the war to prove he has a second-term agenda. It was an act of self-inoculation, an attempt to preempt Democratic criticism that he doesn't care about the close-to-home stuff. He tossed out a few new (but modest proposals) and the old standbys: health savings accounts, partial privatization of Social Security, tax reform, and tort reform. Especially tort reform--which the GOPers regard as a blow against John Edwards. The delegates roared when Bush pushed this button--much more loudly than when he promised more money for Pell grants or low-income health clinics. As for the details of his domestic agenda, Bush told the crowd to check his website.
He took a couple of spirited swings at John Kerry, deriding his challenger for having voted against the antigay Defense of Marriage Act, for having declared that Hollywood is the "heart and soul of America, and for opposing the $87 billion in funding for the Iraq war. And Bush briefly dished out the red meat to the social conservatives: a few words of support for "the unborn child," a poke at activist judges, a vow to oppose gay marriage. But his passion was reserved for the war on Iraq and the larger undertaking.
The war, in Bush's view, shows that he is willing to do whatever it takes to protect America, that he is a decisive leader whose determination to defeat the nation's enemies cannot be questioned. "You know where I stand," he said--implying you might not now where that other guy stands. And what's more, the war demonstrates that he has a vision beyond kicking terrorist butt. "This young century," he declared, "will be liberty's century. By promoting liberty abroad we will build a safer world....We have a calling from beyond the stars." Idealism (democracy in the Middle East), safety (whipping al Qaeda) and faith (God is calling) all rolled into one neat package. That's not a bad sales pitch. And for a politician who occasionally blows his big speeches, he delivered this half of his acceptance address with strength and conviction.
This was not a transformational speech for Bush. "In general," Senator Orrin Hatch told me, "it's what we've heard before, but he did it well." After Bush described the global campaign he wants to lead in his second term, he then did his down-home, self-deprecating thing: "People sometimes have to correct my English. I knew I had a problem when Arnold Schwarzenegger started doing it." The message: I'm a regular fella whom you have no reason to fear. And while the speech was loaded with the standard misrepresentations--e.g., his choice was to go to war or take Saddam Hussein, a madman, at his word--it did present plenty of clarity. Yes, we certainly do know where he stands when it comes to mounting a crusade.
The obvious question: will the Protector-as-Missionary bit sell? Will voters hear the term "liberty century" and be moved? Or will they ask, is that the name of a new car? It's one thing to turn a lemon (a messy war now considered a mistake by a majority of Americans) into lemonade. But can Bush turn that lemon into blessed wine?
My hunch is that Bush's acceptance speech, no matter what was said, will not make much difference--given that he neither drooled nor pulled a Zell Miller. He came across in a familiar fashion. And after three-and-a-half long years, do voters need more information about Bush to render a decision? If there are any undecided voters--and perhaps they don't really exist--were these citizens paying attention to this speech (or the convention)? And if they were watching, do they want a crusader in the driver's seat? You tell me.
Handicapping this election is a mug's game. On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that political observers and strategists have concluded that the "political terrain has shifted dramatically" in Bush's favor and that "specific proposals are unnecessary." One Bush adviser told the newspaper, "The strategists are saying, 'Everything is breaking our way. It looks like it's almost over.'" But on the same day, The Wall Street Journal noted that a Bush strategist "confided" that "I don't think anything has changed since March. I don't think this election will see a break out." Go figure.
It's impossible to assess how the GOP convention and Bush's speech will play in the long run--meaning over the next two months. Intervening events--the debates, developments in Iraq, swings in the economy--will, well, intervene. But it is easy to discern the Bush gameplan. At this convention, Bush did not pussyfoot about. His message was nuance-free: la guerre est moi. In this regard, he is taking full and complete responsibility and asking to be judged accordingly. And God only knows how that's going to turn out.
--The Journeys Bar, the Essex House, 2:42 am, with assistance--or companionship--from Douglas Brinkley, Michael Isikoff, Greta van Susteren, Mark Hosenball, Tammy Haddad, Dianne Robinson, Brian Doherty, Rosemarie Terenzio, and Ann Klenk. But these people have nothing to do with the views expressed above.
Copyright © 2004 The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/ |
|
Bush by Numbers: Four Years of Double Standards |
by Graydon Carter
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
03 Sep 2004
|
1 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security issued between 20 January 2001 and 10 September 2001 that mentioned al-Qa'ida.
104 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defense in the same period that mentioned Iraq or Saddam Hussein.
101 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defense in the same period that mentioned missile defense
65 Number of Bush administration public statements on National security and defense in the same period that mentioned weapons of mass destruction.
0 Number of times Bush mentioned Osama bin Laden in his three State of the Union addresses.
73 Number of times that Bush mentioned terrorism or terrorists in his three State of the Union addresses.
83 Number of times Bush mentioned Saddam, Iraq, or regime (as in change) in his three State of the Union addresses.
$1m Estimated value of a painting the Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, received from Prince Bandar, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States and Bush family friend.
0 Number of times Bush mentioned Saudi Arabia in his three State of the Union addresses.
1,700 Percentage increase between 2001 and 2002 of Saudi Arabian spending on public relations in the United States.
79 Percentage of the 11 September hijackers who came from Saudi Arabia.
3 Number of 11 September hijackers whose entry visas came through special US-Saudi "Visa Express" program.
140 Number of Saudis, including members of the Bin Laden family, evacuated from United States almost immediately after 11 September.
14 Number of Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents assigned to track down 1,200 known illegal immigrants in the United States from countries where al-Qa'ida is active.
$3m Amount the White House was willing to grant the 9/11 Commission to investigate the 11 September attacks.
$0 Amount approved by George Bush to hire more INS special agents.
$10m Amount Bush cut from the INS's existing terrorism budget.
$50m Amount granted to the commission that looked into the Columbia space shuttle crash.
$5m Amount a 1996 federal commission was given to study legalized gambling.
7 Number of Arabic linguists fired by the US army between mid-August and mid-October 2002 for being gay.
George Bush: Military man
1972 Year that Bush walked away from his pilot duties in the Texas National Guard, Nearly two years before his six-year obligation was up.
$3,500 Reward a group of veterans offered in 2000 for anyone who could confirm Bush's Alabama guard service.
600-700 Number of guardsmen who were in Bush's unit during that period.
0 Number of guardsmen from that period who came forward with information about Bush's guard service.
0 Number of minutes that President Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, the assistant Defense Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, the former chairman of the Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle, and the White House Chief of Staff, Karl Rove  the main proponents of the war in Iraq Âserved in combat (combined).
0 Number of principal civilian or Pentagon staff members who planned the war who have immediate family members serving in uniform in Iraq.
8 Number of members of the US Senate and House of Representatives who have a child serving in the military.
10 Number of days that the Pentagon spent investigating a soldier who had called the President "a joke" in a letter to the editor of a Newspaper.
46 Percentage increase in sales between 2001 and 2002 of GI Joe figures (children's toys).
Ambitious warrior
2 Number of Nations that George Bush has attacked and taken over since coming into office.
130 Approximate Number of countries (out of a total of 191 recognized by the United Nations) with a US military presence.
43 Percentage of the entire world's military spending that the US spends on defense (That was in 2002, the year before the invasion of Iraq.)
$401.3bn Proposed military budget for 2004.
Savior of Iraq
1983 The year in which Donald Rumsfeld, Ronald Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East, gave Saddam Hussein a pair of golden spurs as a gift.
2.5 Number of hours after Rumsfeld learnt that Osama bin Laden was a suspect in the 11 September attacks that he brought up reasons to "hit" Iraq.
237 Minimum number of misleading statements on Iraq made by top Bush administration officials between 2002 and January 2004, according to the California Representative Henry Waxman.
10m Estimated number of people worldwide who took to the streets on 21 February 2003, in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, the largest simultaneous protest in world history.
$2bn Estimated monthly cost of US military presence in Iraq projected by the White House in April 2003.
$4bn Actual monthly cost of the US military presence in Iraq according to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld in 2004.
$15m Amount of a contract awarded to an American firm to build a cement factory in Iraq.
$80,000 Amount an Iraqi firm spent (using Saddam's confiscated funds) to build the same factory, after delays prevented the American firm from starting it.
2000 Year that Cheney said his policy as CEO of Halliburton oil services company was "we wouldn't do anything in Iraq".
$4.7bn Total value of contracts awarded to Halliburton in Iraq and Afghanistan.
$680m Estimated value of Iraq reconstruction contracts awarded to Bechtel.
$2.8bnValue of Bechtel Corp contracts in Iraq.
$120bn Amount the war and its aftermath are projected to cost for the 2004 fiscal year.
35 Number of countries to which the United States suspended military assistance after they failed to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from prosecution before the International Criminal Court.
92 Percentage of Iraq's urban areas with access to potable water in late 2002.
60 Percentage of Iraq's urban areas with access to potable water in late 2003.
55 Percentage of the Iraqi workforce who were unemployed before the war.
80 Percentage of the Iraqi workforce who are unemployed a Year after the war.
0 Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi surrender in May 1945.
37 Death toll of US soldiers in Iraq in May 2003, the month combat operations "officially" ended.
0 Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home that the Bush administration has permitted to be photographed.
0 Number of memorial services for the returned dead that Bush has attended since the beginning of the war.
A soldier's best friend
40,000 Number of soldiers in Iraq seven months after start of the war still without Interceptor vests, designed to stop a round from an AK-47.
$60m Estimated cost of outfitting those 40,000 soldiers with Interceptor vests.
62 Percentage of gas masks that army investigators discovered did Not work properly in autumn 2002.
90 Percentage of detectors which give early warning of a biological weapons attack found to be defective.
87 Percentage of Humvees in Iraq not equipped with armour capable of stopping AK-47 rounds and protecting against roadside bombs and landmines at the end of 2003.
Making the country safer
$3.29 Average amount allocated per person Nationwide in the first round of homeland security grants.
$94.40 Amount allocated per person for homeland security in American Samoa.
$36 Amount allocated per person for homeland security in Wyoming, Vice-President Cheney's home state.
$17 Amount allocated per person in New York state.
$5.87 Amount allocated per person in New York City.
$77.92 Amount allocated per person in New Haven, Connecticut, home of Yale University, Bush's alma mater.
76 Percentage of 215 cities surveyed by the US Conference of Mayors in early 2004 that had yet to receive a dime in federal homeland security assistance for their first-response units.
5 Number of major US airports at the beginning of 2004 that the Transportation Security Administration admitted were Not fully screening baggage electronically.
22,600 Number of planes carrying unscreened cargo that fly into New York each month.
5 Estimated Percentage of US air cargo that is screened, including cargo transported on passenger planes.
95 Percentage of foreign goods that arrive in the United States by sea.
2 Percentage of those goods subjected to thorough inspection.
$5.5bnEstimated cost to secure fully US ports over the Next decade.
$0 Amount Bush allocated for port security in 2003.
$46m Amount the Bush administration has budgeted for port security in 2005.
15,000 Number of major chemical facilities in the United States.
100 Number of US chemical plants where a terrorist act could endanger the lives of more than one million people.
0 Number of new drugs or vaccines against "priority pathogens" listed by the Centers for Disease Control that have been developed and introduced since 11 September 2001.
Giving a hand up to the advantaged
$10.9m Average wealth of the members of Bush's original 16-person cabinet.
75 Percentage of Americans unaffected by Bush's sweeping 2003 cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.
$42,000 Average savings members of Bush's cabinet received in 2003 as a result of cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes.
10 Number of fellow members from the Yale secret society Skull and Bones that Bush has named to important positions (including the Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum Jr. and SEC chief Bill Donaldson).
79 Number of Bush's initial 189 appointees who also served in his father's administration.
A man with a lot of friends
$113m Amount of total hard money the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign received, a record.
$11.5m Amount of hard money raised through the Pioneer program, the controversial fund-raising process created for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign. (Participants pledged to raise at least $100,000 by bundling together checks of up to $1,000 from friends and family. Pioneers were assigned numbers, which were included on all checks, enabling the campaign to keep track of who raised how much.)
George Bush: Money manager
4.7m Number of bankruptcies that were declared during Bush's first three years in office.
2002 The worst year for major markets since the recession of the 1970s.
$489bn The US trade deficit in 2003, the worst in history for a single year.
$5.6tr Projected national surplus forecast by the end of the decade when Bush took office in 2001.
$7.22tr US national debt by mid-2004.
George Bush: Tax cutter
87 Percentage of American families in April 2004 who say they have felt no benefit from Bush's tax cuts.
39 Percentage of tax cuts that will go to the top 1 per cent of American families when fully phased in.
49 Percentage of Americans in April 2004 who found that their taxes had actually gone up since Bush took office.
88 Percentage of American families who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and dividends taxes.
$30,858 Amount Bush himself saved in taxes in 2003.
Employment tsar
9.3m Number of US unemployed in April 2004.
2.3m Number of Americans who lost their jobs during first three Years of the Bush administration.
22m Number of jobs gained during Clinton's eight years in office.
Friend of the poor
34.6m Number of Americans living below the poverty line (1 in 8 of the population).
6.8m Number of people in the workforce but still classified as poor.
35m Number of Americans that the government defines as "food insecure," in other words, hungry.
$300m Amount cut from the federal program that provides subsidies to poor families so they can heat their homes.
40 Percentage of wealth in the United States held by the richest 1 per cent of the population.
18 Percentage of wealth in Britain held by the richest 1e per cent of the population.
George Bush And his special friend
$60bn Loss to Enron stockholders, following the largest bankruptcy in US history.
$205m Amount Enron CEO Kenneth Lay earned from stock option profits over a four-year period.
$101m Amount Lay made from selling his Enron shares just before the company went bankrupt.
$59,339 Amount the Bush campaign reimbursed Enron for 14 trips on its corporate jet during the 2000 campaign.
30 Length of time in months between Enron's collapse and Lay (whom the President called "Kenny Boy") still not being charged with a crime.
George Bush: Lawman
15 Average number of minutes Bush spent reviewing capital punishment cases while governor of Texas.
46 Percentage of Republican federal judges when Bush came to office.
57 Percentage of Republican federal judges after three years of the Bush administration.
33 Percentage of the $15bn Bush pledged to fight Aids in Africa that must go to abstinence-only programs.
The Civil libertarian
680 Number of suspected al-Qa'ida members that the United States admits are detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
42 Number of nationalities of those detainees at Guantanamo.
22 Number of hours prisoners were handcuffed, shackled, and made to wear surgical masks, earmuffs, and blindfolds during their flight to Guantanamo.
32 Number of confirmed suicide attempts by Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
24 Number of prisoners in mid-2003 being monitored by psychiatrists in Guantanamo's new mental ward.
A health-conscious president
43.6m Number of Americans without health insurance by the end of 2002 (more than 15 per cent of the population).
2.4m Number of Americans who lost their health insurance during Bush's first year in office.
Environmentalist
$44m Amount the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign and the Republican National Committee received in contributions from the fossil fuel, chemical, timber, and mining industries.
200 Number of regulation rollbacks downgrading or weakening environmental laws in Bush's first three years in office.
31 Number of Bush administration appointees who are alumni of the energy industry (includes four cabinet secretaries, the six most powerful White House officials, and more than 20 other high-level appointees).
50 Approximate number of policy changes and regulation rollbacks injurious to the environment that have been announced by the Bush administration on Fridays after 5pm, a time that makes it all but impossible for news organizations to relay the information to the widest possible audience.
50 Percentage decline in Environmental Protection Agency enforcement actions against polluters under Bush's watch.
34 Percentage decline in criminal penalties for environmental crimes since Bush took office.
50 Percentage decline in civil penalties for environmental crimes since Bush took office.
$6.1m Amount the EPA historically valued each human life when conducting economic analyses of proposed regulations.
$3.7m Amount the EPA valued each human life when conducting analyses of proposed regulations during the Bush administration.
0 Number of times Bush mentioned global warming, clean air, clean water, pollution or environment in his 2004 State of the Union speech. His father was the last president to go through an entire State of the Union address without mentioning the environment.
1 Number of paragraphs devoted to global warming in the EPA's 600-page "Draft Report on the Environment" presented in 2003.
68 Number of days after taking office that Bush decided Not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases by roughly 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. The United States was to cut its level by 7 per cent.
1 The rank of the United States worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
25 Percentage of overall worldwide carbon dioxide emissions the United States is responsible for.
53 Number of days after taking office that Bush reneged on his campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
14 Percentage carbon dioxide emissions will increase over the next 10 years under Bush's own global-warming plan (an increase of 30 per cent above their 1990 levels).
408 Number of species that could be extinct by 2050 if the global-warming trend continues.
5 Number of years the Bush administration said in 2003 that global warming must be further studied before substantive action could be taken.
62 Number of members of Cheney's 63-person Energy Task Force with ties to corporate energy interests.
0 Number of environmentalists asked to attend Cheney's Energy Task Force meetings.
6 Number of months before 11 September that Cheney's Energy Task Force investigated Iraq's oil reserves.
2 Percentage of the world's population that is British.
2 Percentage of the world's oil used by Britain.
5 Percentage of the world's population that is American.
25 Percentage of the world's oil used by America.
63 Percentage of oil the United States imported in 2003, a record high.
24,000 Estimated number of premature deaths that will occur under Bush's Clear Skies initiative.
300 Number of Clean Water Act violations by the mountaintop-mining industry in 2003.
750,000 Tons of toxic waste the US military, the world's biggest polluter, generates around the world each Year.
$3.8bn Amount in the Superfund trust fund for toxic site clean-ups in 1995, the Year "polluter pays" fees expired.
$0m Amount of uncommitted dollars in the Superfund trust fund for toxic site clean-ups in 2003.
270 Estimated number of court decisions citing federal Negligence in endangered-species protection that remained unheeded during the first year of the Bush administration.
100 Percentage of those decisions that Bush then decided to allow the government to ignore indefinitely.
68.4 Average Number of species added to the Endangered and Threatened Species list each year between 1991 and 2000.
0 Number of endangered species voluntarily added by the Bush administration since taking office.
50 Percentage of screened workers at Ground Zero who now suffer from long-term health problems, almost half of whom don't have health insurance.
78 Percentage of workers at Ground Zero who now suffer from lung ailments.
88 Percentage of workers at Ground Zero who Now suffer from ear, nose, or throat problems.
22 Asbestos levels at Ground Zero were 22 times higher than the levels in Libby, Montana, where the W R Grace mine produced one of the worst Superfund disasters in US history.
Image booster for the US
2,500 Number of public-diplomacy officers employed by the State Department to further the image of the US abroad in 1991.
1,200 Number of public-diplomacy officers employed by the State Department to further US image abroad in 2004.
4 Rank of the United States among countries considered to be the greatest threats to world peace according to a 2003 Pew Global Attitudes study (Israel, Iran, and North Korea were considered more dangerous; Iraq was considered less dangerous).
$66bn Amount the United States spent on international aid and diplomacy in 1949.
$23.8bn Amount the United States spent on international aid and diplomacy in 2002.
85 Percentage of Indonesians who had an unfavorable image of the United States in 2003.
Second-party endorsements
90 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 26 September 2001.
67 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 26 September 2002.
54 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 30 September, 2003.
50 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president on 15 October 2003.
49 Percentage of Americans who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president in May 2004.
More like the French than he would care to admit
28 Number of vacation days Bush took in August 2003, the second-longest vacation of any president in US history. (Record holder Richard Nixon.)
13 Number of vacation days the average American receives each Year.
28 Number of vacation days Bush took in August 2001, the month he received a 6 August Presidential Daily Briefing headed "Osama bin Laden Determined to Strike US Targets."
500 Number of days Bush has spent all or part of his time away from the White House at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, his parents' retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, or Camp David as of 1 April 2004.
No fool when it comes to the press
11 Number of press conferences during his first three Years in office in which Bush referred to questions as being "trick" ones.
Factors in his favor
3 Number of companies that control the US voting technology market.
52 Percentage of votes cast during the 2002 midterm elections that were recorded by Election Systems & Software, the largest voting-technology firm, a big Republican donor.
29 Percentage of votes that will be cast via computer voting machines that don't produce a paper record.
17On 17 November 2001, The Economist printed a correction for having said George Bush was properly elected in 2000.
$113m Amount raised by the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, the most in American electoral history.
$185m Amount raised by the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign, to the end of March 2004.
$200m Amount that the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign expects to raise by November 2004.
268 Number of Bush-Cheney fund-raisers who had earned Pioneer status (by raising $100,000 each) as of March 2004.
187 Number of Bush-Cheney fund-raisers who had earned Ranger status (by raising $200,000 each) as of March 2004.
$64.2mThe Amount Pioneers and Rangers had raised for Bush-Cheney as of March 2004.
85 Percentage of Americans who can't Name the Chief Justice of the United States.
69 Percentage of Americans who believed the White House's claims in September 2003 that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 11 September attacks.
34 Percentage of Americans who believed in June 2003 that Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction" had been found.
22 Percentage of Americans who believed in May 2003 that Saddam had used his WMDs on US forces.
85 Percentage of American young adults who cannot find Afghanistan, Iraq, or Israel on a map.
30 Percentage of American young adults who cannot find the Pacific Ocean on a map.
75 Percentage of American young adults who don't know the population of the United States.
53 Percentage of Canadian young adults who don't know the population of the United States.
11 Percentage of American young adults who cannot find the United States on a map.
30 Percentage of Americans who believe that "politics and government are too complicated to understand."
Another factor in his favor
70m Estimated number of Americans who describe themselves as Evangelicals who accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and who interpret the Bible as the direct word of God.
23m Number of Evangelicals who voted for Bush in 2000.
50m Number of voters in total who voted for Bush in 2000.
46 Percentage of voters who describe themselves as born-again Christians.
5 Number of states that do not use the word "evolution" in public school science courses.
This is an edited extract from "What We've Lost", by Graydon Carter, published by Little Brown on 9 September
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
For a former college drop-out from Ontario and, briefly, a lineman stringing up telegraph wires on the railways of Canada, Graydon Carter, 55, has risen to impressive heights. The editor of Vanity Fair since 1992  after succeeding Tina Brown  he is one of America's celebrity editors with clout, glamour and a nice line in suits.
It is hard to imagine Carter doing physical work of any kind, beyond exercising his thumb on his silver Zippo lighter. His labor is restricted to rejigging headlines in his magazine  he is a self-confessed failure at delegation of duties  and swanning to Manhattan parties. Martini in hand, he cuts an almost princely and dandyish figure, with billowing shirts and similarly billowing silver hair.
The spotlight on his activities has never burned brighter. In recent months he has transformed the regular editor's letter at the front of the magazine into less of a chat about its coming contents  the spreads of Annie Leibowitz and rants of Christopher Hitchens  and more a full-bore diatribe against the world of George Bush.
© 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd |
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