A quagmire of arrogance

A quagmire of arrogance

LIAMY MCNALLY

Alongside ‘Patricia the Stripper’ on Chris de Burgh’s Spanish Train and Other Stories album is a song called ‘A Spaceman Came Travelling’. 
The song came to mind when George W Bush declared that space belongs to America!  Having conquered all there is to be conquered on terra firma the US Administration is now setting its sights in the great beyond.  One wonders what next for the current US administration that is quickly drowning in its own quagmire of arrogance and deceit. It has been deceitful on so many issues from human rights to a declaration of war.  It is visibly strutting from crisis to crisis, buoyed up by pride.

SOCIETY IS MAN WRIT LARGE 
Long before the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed it in 587, hurling the Jews into exile.  This King was remarkable for leading his troops into battle and actually spent most of his life at the head of his army.  Hiding behind some cedar-lined desk ranting orders was not his style.
Society is man written large, claimed Plato.  George W is a classic example of a man on his knees.  He is intent on dragging society down to his level.  We are bowing to a god that can offer neither salvation nor forgiveness.  His word has gone out across the nations and has caused mayhem and destruction.  Apart from the obvious signs of death, evident daily in Iraq and Afghanistan, George W’s first victims were not bloodied.  No blood was lost, yet the life force was squeezed out of them.  Tony Blair is the classic example.  Bertie Ahern is another, lesser in stature yet necessary to the US administration. 

REFUELLING RENDITION
Bertie’s namesake, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Dermot Ahern, can also fit into the mix.  He was sent out to bat on that awful US habit they call rendition.  It should be named for what it is, kidnapping and torture.  It is nothing more or less.  Our country, in the guise of Shannon Airport, facilitates this.  It happens because we have leaders who are afraid.  They kneel before the altar of US dominance and spread-eagle our runways to receive cargoes of torture and death.  We, as a nation, tolerate the death squads passing through our airport en route to their killing fields as much as we ignore the body bags returning through Shannon Airport, encased in pine boxes of innocence, destined for the broken bosoms of even more broken hearts.  The most the grieving families receive is a flag that has raped them of a love that cannot be replaced.  The least they receive is a casualty number.  And we take part in this. 
The rolling drumlins of County Clare bounce the sounds of the moss-coloured planes as they drop from the skies.  They skim along on their journey to the frontline of lies, refuelling on our ignorance, intolerance and fear.  When their ‘tour’ (who ever thought up this word?) is over they return, refuel again, but there is no hope of new life for their cargo of corpses, dressed in a flag that has betrayed them, its ideals and its ancestry.  To think it only takes one administration to wreck generations of integrity, honesty and valour.  Those values have all been shattered in the past few years by the Texan machine of big business, intent on ensuring that oil is the commodity that greases the wheels of daily life.  They are no longer content with the crumbs from the table.  Now, they must also be the carpenter. 

SHARING THE GUILT
When the history books are written Bertie Ahern will be seen as the Great Houdini.  He was the Manchester martyr whose life was spared.  He is gifted, of that there is no doubt.  He could have been a statesman, but he has succumbed to the lure of the silver dollar US promises, blinded by green beer politics.  If the Fates of Greek mythology play their part, then we will all be visited for our inaction in accepting Shannon Airport as an oasis of death for innocent Iraqi people.  The Iraqis are more innocent of causing ‘harm’ to Americans than we Irish were to the Brits at anytime in our bloodied history.  We are all silenced by the great threat of the ‘economy.’  Money!  Jobs!  And the threat of job losses if we ‘insult’ US investment in this country.  Regardless of what way it is dressed up and washed down, we have blood on our hands. 
We facilitate the invasion of the progeny of Abraham, our father in faith, while we worship the Golden Calf of what is euphemistically called, the American Dream.  Since the present administration came to power, the dream is actually a nightmare.  Abraham came from Ur in Iraq and some of these spirit-starved Yanks caused untold damage to sacred sites in Iraq while allowing priceless artefacts to be plundered.  All in the name of ‘Have a nice day!’

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
The weapons of mass destruction or WMD as they became known did not exist.  The people who proposed them always did.  Can anyone ever accept that Colin Powell was believable when he presented his famous ‘site map’ of the WMD to a watching world?  Imagine if Colin Powell told us everything we should know rather than what he was ‘permitted’ to tell us.  Truth does not have levels of disclosure.  It is a complete package and Colin Powell ‘does not have the face to tell lies.’  Anyone could see how uncomfortable he was on the WMD display.  He will be guaranteed a home if (when?) he comes clean on the WMD ‘class.’  He only has to speak the complete truth once. 
One day lasts 24 hours but truth lasts forever. Truth always finds a home in unexpected places, even in this country.  This current US Administration is quickly earning the title of becoming the most dangerous weapon of mass destruction known to mankind.  A spaceman came travelling!