Ed Haas

King of American Imperialism Speaks

February 1, 2006 – Last night the King of American Imperialism, President Bush, addressed his worldwide subjects.  He scolded those who question the validity of his reign while repeatedly spurring the bloated sides of his pale, dead horse, policies that are destined to further the decline of the United States of America, if not destroy it.  He proved once again that he knows no boundaries, respects no others, and lacks any concept of American jurisdiction, because he believes that the world is within his jurisdiction.  King George and his round table are imperialists, and their supporters, blind zealots. 

Bush, with his ongoing all or nothing approach to world affairs, has demonstrated once again on live television broadcasted around the world, the common traits of a person suffering from untreated alcoholism.  His rigidity, which is misinterpreted by his supporters as decisiveness and toughness, is a textbook symptom of an untreated alcoholic, regardless of whether drunk or sober.  Just like any other mental illness, suffering from alcoholism is not a sin, and pointing out the obvious here is in no way meant to suggest that people who suffer from alcoholism are less than any other people.  It is only meant to point out the fact that alcoholism is primarily a mental illness that impacts the way a sufferer thinks, even after he or she stops drinking, and that all or nothing, black or white, my way or the highway thinking personifies a-typical characteristics of people that are afflicted with untreated alcoholism. 

His chief enablers are co-dependent, or in other words, addicted to him.  All are suffering from the deadly disease of denial.  This is not uncommon.  It is playing out in tens of millions of houses and families across the United States every single day, and with grave consequences.  But what happens when alcoholic thinking rises to the position of the Presidency?  Bad things. 

Alcoholics are often found to be localized tyrants, dictators, and imperialists that have spent decades lying and cheating their way through their mini worlds; so much so that they actually lose the ability to discern fact from fiction.  They frequently believe that rules are made for others, but do not apply to them.  In the text of Alcoholics Anonymous, untreated alcoholics are described as egomaniacs with an inferiority complex.  I clearly see that characteristic in President Bush every time I hear him speak.  To mask his innermost uncertainties, he raises his voice and speaks from an authoritarian posture, more so to reassure his own self-esteem than to convince others. 

He is a fallible human being like the rest of us; least we forget. 

This would all be academic if George W. Bush was not the President of the United States.  But he is, so there can be not pass or privacy allowed when attempting too understand what it is that makes this ticking time bomb tick.  There is little doubt in my mind, that in his mind, Bush thinks he’s right.  In fact, I’ll argue that he thinks he’s doing God’s will.  Again, this would be of little importance if Bush were not the President. 

We have all heard the all or nothing rants.  “Either you’re with us, or you’re against us.”  “Either you’re with the terrorists, or you’re with the freedom loving people of the United States.”  “We will not retreat.  We will stay the course.”  “America is addicted to oil.”  What is so fascinating about this last quote, “America is addicted to oil” is how quickly Bush went from not even mentioning conservation or moderation of oil consumption, to comments in 2005 suggesting that Americans should attempt to conserve energy, to last night, in which he declared, “America is addicted to oil.” 

Another trait of alcoholic thinking is to over dramatize events and circumstances – something that President Bush does constantly.  America is not addicted to oil.  Addiction is an uncontrollable compulsion to repeat a behavior regardless of its consequences.  America might be addicted to world conquest, but not oil.  We have proven that we can and will conserve energy – just look at what happened to the SUV market in 2005!  Gas prices went up, and sales of vehicles with lousy gas mileage, such are the Ford Explorer and Ford Expedition, went down. 

That’s not addiction.  That’s common sense.  If Americans were actually addicted to oil, Ford Explorer sales would have skyrocketed in 2005, and instead of closing down plants and laying off thousands of American workers, Ford would have announced plans for new manufacturing facilities.  That’s addiction.

During his State of the Union Address last night, Bush continued with his black or white politics by calling all those that question his wisdom, isolationists and protectionists.  Again there is no middle ground.  Either you’re with us, or you’re against us.  But can they have it both ways?  Can the people supporting President Bush’s American Imperialism call their fellow Americans who believe that the United States can liberally participate in a global economy while remaining conservative in our approach to global politics, isolationists and protectionists, without themselves being labeled imperialists?  Can they rightfully scoff at the accusation that they are political globalists and absolute imperialists that do not represent what our founding fathers envisioned our nation’s foreign policies to be?  It certainly is not rational.  But when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem, obstacle, or confrontation is viewed as a nail.  It is obvious by their words and deeds that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Company sees every problem as a nail. 

So is the Bush Administration and its supporters really Imperialists?  Here are some common definitions of Imperialism?  You decide. 

• The practice of one country extending its control over the territory, political system, or economic life of another country. Political opposition to this foreign domination is called "anti-imperialism." 

• A policy in which stronger nations attempt to create empires by dominating weaker nations economically, politically, or militarily; also called expansionism

• The highest, and last, stage of capitalism. As defined by Lenin, imperialism is the merging of bank capital with industrial capital to create finance capital; industry is increasingly dominated by monopolies; the export of capital becomes more important than the export of commodities; super-profits are obtained by imperialist super-exploitation of the less developed countries.

Scary stuff, particularly Lenin’s definition.  Who knew communism wasn’t dead?  With the United States of America’s number one export being “bank capital” or the U.S. Dollar, and the fact that exporting capital is more important to our government than exporting commodities, it looks like communism might not have died when they “tore down that wall” after all.  It just went to hell to regroup and wait until the right man came along to lead the death march of the United States of America.  They might have found their man in George W. Bush, because the State of the Union, having an $8 trillion national debt and a rapidly declining U.S. dollar to match, is dismal, and the President of the United States honestly believes it’s not.  It is called denial, another key symptom, characteristic, and trait of untreated alcoholism, and its running rampant in the White House. 

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