Joe Mayer on the State of the Union

At first I didn't understand. Mr. Bush was talking about some group of evil people, but who could they be? It was that part of the speech where he became very deliberate, even focused, frustrated with the status quo, using his Cheney face. The new evil ones are the "isolationists," people who are a "threat within our borders," who want to "tie our hands." It would "end in danger and decline." Finally I realized who this new danger to America was — me, and probably you also.

The more I thought about it, the more I could understand how, in the mind of a neo-conservative, I was definitely an "isolationist;" one who, by their use of the word, disagrees with the administration's imperialistic foreign policy. I confess. I did oppose our worldly ventures into Afghanistan and Iraq. In fact, I still oppose their occupation by our country and our establishing permanent military bases there. I even oppose having our military "protecting" 140 other countries to which our Department of Offense — pardon me, Defense — has sent them.

I oppose, as did Eisenhower, the Military/Industrial complex that uses over half of our discretionary spending so that Bush and cohorts have a reason to cut social programs. I oppose this "complex" business/governmental alliance that supplies half of the arms sales around the world. Give a leader new toys and he's bound to try them on a neighbor or even his own people. But that's the point of arms — use them so that they will need more.

"You're either with us or against us." If "us" means our president and his cabal, I'm against them. If the only choice is "free trade" or no trade then I'm against both. Whatever happened to "fair trade" as an option?

I thought it was an act of aggression when the U.S. used an unmanned "drone" to lay waste a home in Pakistan, an ally. Wouldn't we consider it an act of war if another country did that to us?

I opposed the "coalition of the willing," countries who were bribed and coerced into willingness. Only the leaders of those countries counted, not the desire of their citizens.

In Pax Americana and empire terms, using the words "freedom" and "democracy" to export imperialism with weapons has turned the majority of the world's people against U.S. administration policy. I plead guilty to opposing this type of American expansionism.

I plead guilty to opposing "extraordinary rendition," a foreign policy that exports prisoners to be tortured off American soil to absolve us of guilt. Add Guantanamo — excusing the administration from U.S. law because it's in a foreign state and then saying we're excused from following international law because we're renting the space.

An extreme difference between Mr. Bush and me regarding "isolationism" is that I don't believe any God — the Christian Trinity, Jehovah, Allah — even considered anointing George Bush and the United States as the Divine instrument on earth. These claims are millenniums old and have resulted in killing and exploiting various groups of God's people. War, occupation and subjugation as God's foreign policy for America leave me shuddering.

"Axis of evil" in a previous State of the Union message amplified American citizen fears for three years and billions of dollars. By adding "isolationists" to "terrorists" as a fear/hatred scheme, the neo-conservatives expect to continue their "New American Century" strategy for years to come. Just today, Secretary of Offense Donald Rumsfeld opened the door to Venezuela, stating, "Chavez is worse than Hitler." Venezuela has oil. Yes, I'm an isolationist in regards to this type of foreign policy!

jmayer