As the fourth global-warmed hurricane in two months rips through Florida,
we
are reminded that George W. Bush is history's top terrorist.
We know, of course, that Bush has slaughtered thousands of Iraqis,
imprisoned hundreds without trial or charges, and presided over the torture
and sexual
abuse of many of them. He is the world's leading recruiter for
hate-America terrorists the world over.
Bush's preemptive militarism has paved the way for countless crusades for
oil and fundamentalism in the decades to come. He overthrew the elected
government of Haiti, resulting in hundreds of deaths. He tried to do the
same in
Venezuela. Other target nations are sure to follow.
Bush is also determined to turn AIDS into a profit center for
the drug companies that help fund him. His attacks on sex education, birth
control and reproductive choice will kill girls and women for the decades
to come, especially if he re-criminalizes abortion in a second term.
As Texas's Governor Bush executed a record 150-plus people. He publically
mocked at
least one, Karla Faye Tucker, who had asked him to spare her. His escalated
war on
drugs has helped stuff 2.2 million Americans into the largest gulag in
world
history. Many suffer regular physical and sexual abuse. Many are also
conveniently deprived
of their right to vote.
Bush's catastrophic "No Child Left Behind" program is decimating America's
once-proud educational system, vastly escalating illiteracy and ignorance.
He
is barring thousands of students who have traditionally come here from
overseas. Their disappearance will further cripple American education, as
well as
America's historic role in spreading democratic values to young people
around
the world.
Bush has also decimated the Bill of Rights and basic freedoms embodied in
the US Constitution, paving the way for a potential dictatorship should he
get a
second term.
In short, he has done to America things no foreign terrorist could ever
imagine.
But it all pales before Bush's all-out attack on the natural
environment, which will ultimately kill hundreds of millions of people.
Bush's eco-terror crusade has two primary roots: corporate greed and
fundamental religious extremism.
On the corporate side, Bush's entire environmental policy can be summarized
in a simple sentence: Any polluter favored by the Bush regime can pillage
and destroy any sector of the American ecology, regardless of the
consequences,
with full official sanction, including huge taxpayer handouts.
Bush's signature flip flop has been on global warming. The scientific and
insurance community is now virtually unanimous that rising carbon dioxide
levels
are wrecking utter havoc with global weather patterns, including this
latest
parade of Caribbean hurricanes. The only dissenters are oil company
flacks,
flat earth think tanks and fundamentalist fanatics.
Bush promised in 2000 that if elected he would endorse the Kyoto Accords to
cut CO2 emissions. But then he joined Joseph Stalin in demanding that
science
fit his bizarre ideology. At the behest of his petro-backers, including
Dick
Cheney's Halliburton, Bush has scorned a global consensus that includes his
primary ally in Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Two of the world's
biggest insurance companies, Swiss Re: and Munich Re:, have issued strong
warnings about the skyrocketing costs of climate catastrophes. Even
British
Petroleum has voiced concern, at the same time making massive investments
in
solar
power.
Bush's fossil-nuke energy plan gives huge tax credits for gas guzzling
HumVees, but has cynically stalemated long-standing green energy tax
easements,
crippling the once-booming US wind power industry.
Three years after Bush allowed 9/11, America's 103 atomic power reactors
remain vulnerable to attacks from the air. The first plane that flew into
the World Trade Center could instead have turned the Indian Point reactors
north of New York City into radioactive infernos. Such an apocalyptic
attack could still happen, killing millions
and costing trillions, dwarfing Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. By doing
nothing
significant to make US reactors safer, Bush has painted them with a big
terror bullseye.
Bush is also reviving nuke weapons production and testing, escalating the
likelihood of nuclear war and production disasters.
After 9/11, Bush lied to the people of New York about the toxic fallout from
the WTC collapses. His cover-up caused countless avoidable deaths. His
assaults on the air, water, food and other regulatory responsibilities daily
poison millions worldwide. They feed the on-going plague of cancers, lung
and
heart disease, childhood afflictions and too much more to catalog here.
Acid rain and ozone destruction add to the horrors of global warming, as do
Bush's attacks on America's national parks and public lands.
As history's most environmentally destructive human, Bush's hate-nature
crusade has been blessed by fanatic fundamentalists who believe destruction
of
the planet will hasten the Messiah. James Watt, Ronald Reagan's Interior
Secretary, scorned attempts to preserve the Earth by announcing that Jesus
was
coming soon anyway.
Bush spinmeister Karl Rove bans such blunt talk. But his all-out attacks
on environmental protection, fuel efficiency, renewable energy and much
more
have already guaranteed an avoidable death toll unparalleled in human
history. The evil winds of climate chaos now blasting through the
Caribbean
may
soon seem like mild breezes compared to the ultimate eco-curse of George W. Bush.
Attila the Hun. Genghis Khan. The Kaiser. Hitler. Stalin. Saddam. Bin
Laden. None have killed more than those dying and destined to die at
Bush's
anti-green hands. His terror attacks have driven Mother Earth to the very
brink.
Four more years and he just might finish her off---and all of us with her.
--------------------------------------------------
HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES is available at (
http://www.harveywasserman.com) . He is senior
advisor to
Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service.
