Would you vote for an anarchist? Oops! If you’re British or American, you very likely did. Yes, real anarchists — people who advocate overthrowing existing, organized government and replacing it with “freedom”, now run America, the UK, and much of the Western and westernized world.
You surely didn’t intend to “vote Anarchist.” Why put into government someone who doesn’t believe in government? But we in the West did just that. Bush and Blair may be accidental anarchists. It’s hard to believe the Iraq debacle was deliberately their own idea. And Bush and Blair are picky anarchists. General anarchists want to destroy all forms of government in “freedom’s” name, whereas Bush and Blair only want to destroy Middle Eastern governments in “freedom’s” name. One state at a time.
What will take the place of organized government for Accidental Anarchists? “Freedom.” Freedom’s the shorthand for textbook anarchy, which seeks to replace government with “free” agreements between “free” people, whom anarchists presume will be inherently “good” once artificial government and its false institutions will no longer be “corrupting” influences on the tender human psyche, which yearns only to be “free.” To reach this pinnacle of perfect, individual “freedom,” the anarchist will first destroy any authority, particularly the police, as the state’s agent, that it regards as oppressive and hindering human development.
Like the police in Iraq. Remember them?
You might say, “Oh, I’d never vote Anarchist. I don’t buy that naive, utopian prattle. I like having a little bit of government around. And even the police have a place.” But just listen to the hundreds of “freedom” speeches Bush has made, of which this is but a tiny sample: “Iraqis are taking big steps on a long journey of freedom. A free society requires more than free elections; it also requires free institutions, a vibrant civil society, rule of law, anti-corruption, and the habits of liberty built over generations. By claiming their own freedom, the Iraqis are already transforming the region.... (P)eople are standing up for their freedom... The trend is clear: Freedom is on the march. Freedom is the birthright and deep desire of every human soul, and spreading freedom’s blessings is the calling of our time.”
And if fighting for “freedom” against Muslims and Iraqi insurgents and the demonic Zarqawi and other unnamed “enemies” doesn’t make you want to run out and enlist, or offer up your sons and daughters, well how about fighting German Nazis? Are German Nazis evil enough for you? And how about the World Wars? Weren’t they ultimately noble? If you thought the World Wars were over, Bush says you are wrong.
Anarchist Bush now insists that the US and British military invasion and occupation of Iraq is nothing more than “the concentrated work of generations — from the brave Americans who fought against Nazi Germany sixty years ago to those who struggle for liberty today. And by working together, we will ensure that the promise of liberty and democracy won on V-E day will one day reach every person and nation is the 21st century.”
Worried about the mounting US, Coalition, and Iraqi casualties? Why, anarchist Bush claims, it’s nothing compared to the first part of the never-ending world war, the second part of which was “a victory for freedom in which 400,000 Americans gave their lives.” Don’t even talk about how many Americans and Europeans died in the first part. Iraq is merely a continuation of this “freedom” struggle, where “a new generation of Americans is making its own sacrifice on behalf of peace and freedom.”
Do Bush and Blair really believe they are fighting Nazism, a failed ideology no one believes in anymore? Do they really believe the Iraq War is a continuation of World War II?
Bush drops clues about why the Accidental Anarchists now tell us we’re in Iraq fighting German Nazis, who barely exist anymore outside the cinema. Indeed, even Israel slowed up prosecuting genuine Nazis after their highly discredited, abusive trial of “Ivan the Terrible,” an elderly, naturalized US citizen whom Israel eventually released. The Accidental Anarchists want perfect individualized freedom for the whole world, Bush tells us, but with one exception — Israel: “We seek a democratic, independent and viable state for the Palestinian people,” which sounds good to the West. Sounds like what we strive for so imperfectly but earnestly at home. But do we seek the same for Israel? No. As for Israel, the Accidental Anarchists “are committed,” Bush says, “to the security of Israel as a Jewish state.”
Well, how come Israel gets to be a religious state, but nobody else does? And why, if one is a Muslim rather than Jewish state, does Anarchist Bush contend that “freedom” requires your religion to stay out of politics?
If anarchy rules, as Bush and Blair claim it does, then why not establish perfect “freedom” in Israel? Why not keep religion out of politics entirely? If “freedom” in Iraq means less institutionalized religion, and this will, as Bush claims, “transform the (Middle East) region,” then why not start with Israel?
But first, let’s find those German Nazis. It won’t be easy. A joke circulated during the height of the Irish “troubles” coinciding with the first Palestinian intifada. A man was walking through Ulster late one evening, when a hand reached out of the shadows and grabbed him by the neck, and a voice with a deep Irish accent demanded, “So what be your religion?” The man hurriedly thought, “If I say I’m Catholic, this guy could be Protestant and kill me. And if I say I’m Protestant, he could be Catholic, and kill me.” So the man shouted, “I’m Jewish!” And the voice replied, “And I’m the luckiest Arab in all of Ireland!”
Indeed, it’s far easier to find Arabs in Ireland than it will be to find German Nazis anywhere today.
But keep looking. A German Nazi will surely surface somewhere in Iraq soon. Perhaps along with a huge cache of weapons of mass destruction.
Not everyone, even freedom lovers, buy this. The mother of a slain US serviceman camps in Crawford, Texas, protesting the war as Bush drives by without stopping. Her supporters line the road with crosses for the dead. The father of another slain serviceman, in a raging, furious grief, sets a military car ablaze as the officers alight to give him the dreaded news. Do these parents not value “freedom?”
Do they not believe in German Nazis? Or is “freedom” no longer enough?
