Highlights

 
Quotable
When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?
– Benjamin Franklin
Original Letters Blog US Casualties Contact Donate

 
January 10, 2007

The Headless Horseman of the Apocalypse


by Norman Solomon

President Bush may be a headless horseman. But the biggest problem is what he rode in on.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a good name for it 40 years ago. "The madness of militarism."

We can blame Bush all we want – and he does hold the reins right now – but his main enablers these days are the fastidious public servants in Congress. They keep preparing the hay, freshening the water, oiling the saddle, even while criticizing the inappropriately jocular rider. And when the band plays "Hail to the Jockey," most of the grown-up stable boys and girls can't help saluting.

The people who actually live in Iraq have their own opinions, of course. UPI reported at the end of December that a new poll, conducted by the Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies, found that "about 90 percent of Iraqis feel the situation in the country was better before the U.S.-led invasion than it is today." Meanwhile, according to a CNN poll last month, 11 percent of Americans support sending more U.S. troops to Iraq.

Buried in a New York Times news article on Tuesday (Jan. 9) was this statement of fact: "By law, Congress can limit the nature of troop deployments, cap the size of military deployments and cut financing for existing or prospective deployments."

Some Democrats in Congress want to hand the president his head and some don't. But, as a practical matter, the distinction is moot. He's in the thrall of what you might call a repetition compulsion disorder that manifests as digging in his heels.

Obviously the president likes the wind in his ears. And he shows no sign of slowing down. Bush can keep riding the madness of militarism at a gallop unless people on Capitol Hill stop nourishing it with appropriations. And they won't do that unless we find effective ways to insist that they cut off funding for the war.

The key problem right now isn't the headless jockey. It's the stable hands who keep feeding the horse he rode in on.


comments on this article?
 
Archives

  • These Colors Cannot Run… Afghanistan
     3/25/2009

  • Freeing Up Resources... for More War
     2/26/2009

  • Why Are We Still at War?
     2/4/2009

  • 44 Years Later, LBJ's Ghost Hovers Over the 44th President
     1/27/2009

  • A Hundred Eyes for an Eye
     12/30/2008

  • The Silent Winter of Escalation
     12/9/2008

  • Finally, the Story of the Whistleblower Who Tried to Prevent the Iraq War
     9/26/2008

  • Deadly 'Diplomacy'
     6/13/2008

  • NPR News: National Pentagon Radio?
     3/28/2008

  • The War Election
     3/5/2008

  • In Honor of My Mother and the Power of Love
     1/24/2008

  • The United States of Violence
     10/19/2007

  • The Pro-War Undertow of the Blackwater Scandal
     10/17/2007

  • Sputnik, 50 Years Later: The Launch of Techno-Power
     10/5/2007

  • Here's the Smell of the Blood Still
     9/13/2007

  • Six Years of 9/11 as
    a License to Kill
     9/11/2007

  • Let's Face It: The Warfare State Is Part of Us
     8/23/2007

  • Backspin for War: The Convenience of Denial
     8/17/2007

  • Let Us Now Praise an Infamous Woman – and Our Own Possibilities
     8/8/2007

  • Media Blitz for War: The Big Guns of August
     8/3/2007

  • Media Spin on Iraq: We're Leaving (Sort of)
     7/27/2007

  • From the Grave, a Senator Exposes Bloody Hands on Capitol Hill
     7/20/2007

  • A Bloody Media Mirror
     7/6/2007

  • War at the Remote
     6/19/2007

  • The Silence of the Bombs
     6/12/2007

  • Deadly Illusions, Rest in Peace
     5/25/2007

  • Bowing Down to Our Own Violence
     4/20/2007

  • MoveOn Whitewashes Hillary's Iran Belligerence
     4/13/2007

  • McCain Walks in
    McNamara's Footsteps
     4/3/2007

  • 'Pragmatism' Is Prolonging
    the War
     3/14/2007

  • Making an Example of
    Ehren Watada
     2/7/2007

  • The Pentagon vs.
    Press Freedom
     1/23/2007

  • The Headless Horseman of the Apocalypse
    1/10/2007

  • Powell, Baker, Hamilton – Thanks for Nothing
    12/19/2006

  • Is the USA the Center
    of the World?
     12/13/2006

  • It's Happening Again
     12/6/2006

  • The New Media Offensive Against Withdrawal
     11/17/2006

  • Saddam's Unindicted Co-Conspirator
     11/7/2006

  • The Pundit Path for Death in Iraq
     10/14/2006

  • Welcome to the Nuclear Club
     10/10/2006

  • 'Quagmire' Isn't the Right Word
     10/3/2006

  • Media Tall Tales
    for the Next War
     9/26/2006

  • The World's View of the US 'War on Terror'
     9/9/2006

  • Spinning the Troop Levels in Iraq
     9/6/2006

  • Bush vs. Ahmadinejad: A Debate We'll Never See
     9/1/2006

  • The Mythical End to the Politics of Fear
     8/25/2006

  • News Media's Love-Hate for Nuclear Weapons
     8/7/2006

  • Applauding While
    Lebanon Burns
     7/27/2006

  • Their Barbarism, and Ours
     6/22/2006

  • Hillary Clinton's
    Premature Triangulation
     6/16/2006

  • The Urbanity of Evil
     6/6/2006

  • How Long Will MoveOn.org Fail to Oppose Bombing Iran?
     4/18/2006

  • When War Crimes Are Impossible
     4/5/2006

  • Blaming the Media for
    Bad War News
     3/24/2006

  • War-Loving Pundits
     3/17/2006

  • Mahatma Bush
     3/1/2006

  • The Iran Crisis: 'Diplomacy' as a Launch Pad for Missiles
    2/7/2006

  • Domestic Lying: The Question Journalists Don't Ask Bush
     1/30/2006

  • Axis of Fanatics – Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad
     1/7/2006

  • The NY Times Fails Its Readers
     12/30/2005

  • NSA Spied on Diplomats in Push for Iraq War
     12/28/2005

  • A New Salvo of
    Bright Spinning Lies
     12/23/2005

  • Blurring Terrorism and Insurgency in Iraq
     12/13/2005

  • Rumsfeld's Handshake Deal With Saddam
    12/9/2005

  • Hidden in Plane Sight
     12/6/2005
    • Norman Solomon's book Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State is out now.

    Reproduction of material from any original Antiwar.com pages
    without written permission is strictly prohibited.
    Copyright 2013 Antiwar.com