manunderstress.com

I’ve often thought there was a special bond between the animated and equally rhetorical dictators Chavez and Dubya. They have a Yin and Yang thing going on. While Bush has arguably fanned the fires of terrorism worldwide, weakening the international reputation of the US in the process, Chavez has rallied the troops with his anti-imperialist USA rhetoric to starting new heights in Latin America. And he rubs it in Dubya’s face whenever he can. Now Bush is hitting back. They make great caricatures of political leaders, the only problem is that it’s without the caricature.

Sheldon Richman with the lowdown on the Latin America, and the connection between these two goons:

If Bush were truly interested in seeing poverty diminished and freedom increased in Latin America, he wouldn’t be playing these games, which will only give Chavez more grist for his propaganda mill. Prosperity and freedom require that governments back off, respect individual rights, and not try to direct economic affairs. Latin America needs neither socialism nor American-style state capitalism. It needs radical decentralization and genuinely free markets. Come to think of it, so does the United States.

Fred Kaplan on recent remarks from the Bush administration:

4. “George Washington’s long struggle for freedom has also inspired generations of Americans to stand for freedom in their own time. Today, we’re fighting a new war to defend our liberty and our people and our way of life.”

On Feb. 19, to celebrate George Washington’s birthday, President Bush gave a speech at Mount Vernon comparing himself to the father of our country and the Iraqi war to the Revolutionary War.

In the past, George W. Bush has likened himself to Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy.

I just adore the megalomania with which certain politicians liken themselves to vastly superior historical leaders. Dubya sitting around thinking he is like George Washington is like my 5 year old nephew sitting around thinking he is like Batman. Of course this is simply propaganda to battle with free-falling popularity ratings by glossing over the particulars of reality with fuzzy patriot-nostalgia of yore. Who could argue with Pearl Harbor? With WW2?

Kaplan continues:

Sound familiar? It’s obviously meant to, but it shouldn’t. Here’s an awkward question: By Bush’s own description, which side in the Iraq war most resembles the “ragged Continental Army” and which side the “mighty empire”? I don’t mean to draw moral (or any other sort of) equivalences, because there is nothing at all equivalent about those two wars, or these two presidents, and it degrades the serious study of history to pretend there is.