MoveOn Bulletin


>  DOMESTIC ISSUES OBSCURED BY THE CONSTANT TALK OF WAR
> If you beat the war drum loudly enough, can you drown out discussion of all 
> other domestic issues? It certainly seems like the Bush administration is 
> trying. The rush to war is dominating the US agenda, drawing attention away 
> from a whole host of pressing problems. While Iraq remains the focus of the 
> nightly news, congressional discussion, and the campaign trail, other 
> issues naturally fade into the background. And this is the most helpful 
> place for them to remain if President Bush wants to maintain his approval 
> rating. Whether or not the Iraq war is a case of "wag the dog," it is 
> certainly diverting attention from policies that might otherwise be 
> threatening the current administration's very existence. The ailing economy 
> is perhaps the biggest and most obvious problem facing the US at the 
> moment. The stock market is doing poorly. The deficit is growing. Millions 
> of people have lost their jobs. The Bush administration's budgeting 
> demonstrates a policy of going after social spending, especially to finance 
> expensive war efforts. The problems with the economy seem to have a very 
> close relationship with Bush's tax cuts, and with the ever growing costs of 
> Bush's war policies. Several other major issues have also been pushed off 
> the front page (but just barely). Details of energy and corporate scandals 
> continue to surface, but the coverage of Iraq has muted the stories. 
> Environmental issues are treated as inconsequential, despite the fact that 
> by many accounts, the US is speeding up the probability of climactic 
> disaster by killing the Kyoto Protocol and instituting oil-friendly 
> policies at home. Trade problems have driven up the price of steel and 
> lumber domestically, and could possibly spark punishing trade wars with 
> powerful entities such as the European Union. These issues can't be 
> sidelined forever. Pollution doesn't fix itself; poverty and illness won't 
> just go away. So while President Bush prosecutes a war on Iraq in the name 
> of national security, our security is silently slipping away.   
> 
 A CLASSIC CASE OF MISDIRECTION
> 
> The Email Activist provides an excellent statement on the current 
> situation: "The Bush administration’s domestic policy has been an utter 
> failure for everyone except the wealthy. The gap between the rich and poor 
> continues to grow. The budget surplus that prompted last year’s raid on the 
> Treasury turned out to be an accounting fiction. Rampant corporate 
> corruption on an unregulated Wall Street has wiped out the life savings and 
> retirement portfolios of countless citizens and has eliminated thousands of 
> jobs. And since September 11, our constitutional rights have been vanishing 
> faster than al-Qaeda operatives . . . So why has all this bad news pretty 
> much disappeared from the national radar screen? The answer is Iraq. The 
> Bush team is successfully manipulating the media (and the Congress) into 
> shifting all attention away from its shameful failures by announcing its 
> intention to take out Saddam Hussein. It’s a classic case of misdirection. 
> Like a pickpocket, the Bush administration is stealing your wallet with one 
> hand while distracting you with the other one." 
> 
> 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~