War is Peace
(George Orwell, 1984)

By: Eliot J. Chandler

After over two years the Democrats have still not been able to get their act together. And they are continuing to grumble over the November 2000 presidential election. What no one seems to realize, so far, is that what happened that November, actually on December 12, 2000, was really a bloodless coup.

It was not apparent at first. But following 9/11, and the President confiscating a bull horn, the White House was off and running, not only taking the Congress by storm but the news media and the American public as well. Piece by piece the administration then began to put their comprehensive plan into action and have received only minimal dissent. Even those critical of the administration have failed to recognize the coup that had taken place. Their criticisms were not only missing the mark but were, in effect, further empowering the White House by stirring the public to view that dissent as being un-American.

For the most part the U.S. public fully trusts this President to look after things so that they can comfortably return to their SUV's, TV sports, and sitcoms. Unlike the homefront during WWII, the patriotism Americans are expressing today would in no way encourage them to accept high prices, shortages, food and gas rationing, air raid drills, blackout curtains, and painting half of their car's headlights black.

The administration's comprehensive plan covers subjects both foreign and domestic. At home the Democrats are railing over the President's giving all of the Clinton surplus to the rich, but they are failing to grasp the administration's real motives. The Republicans ultimate goal is to have less government. And they prefer a deficit to a surplus. So, giving the surplus to the top 1% of Americans is not an end in itself but a means of removing it from being spent to produce more government. Bush could instead burn it in a big bonfire in the Rose Garden but that idea probably wouldn't fly.

Ideally, the Republicans would like to eliminate most of the federal government's social programs and focus on greatly enlarging the military. Former President Reagan attempted to dismantle programs by installing directors who would take them apart from the inside-out, but this was not effective. Bush's plan is to promise compassionate conservatism but, at the same time, making sure that no money is available to fund programs, and all-the-while apologizing profusely for being unable to implement his compassionate agenda. Even his touted tax cut for most Americans will be offset by the state's consequent need to increase taxes in order to continue operating.

One of the aims of the neocon's comprehensive plan is to stack the Supreme Court and to curb the power of Congress, rendering it impotent, short circuiting the checks and balances our founders had put in place.

Another is to remove our constitutionally guaranteed democratic freedoms by implementing the Patriot Act. Most Americans may not even notice that these are being slowly eroded, while many others will not only accept this erosion, but will welcome it, believing that our ideals, while lofty and cherished, are impractical in dealing with today's world, that our security is preferable to our personal freedoms, our privacy, and our civil rights.

Internationally, the coup being quietly implemented by the administration not only pre-existed 9/11 but the 2000 election as well. It was privately and formally established as PNAC, the "Project for the New American Century", in the Spring of 1997. Plans were drawn up for what they would do if the Republicans should retake the White House. Many of its members, like Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Dick Cheney, are today in the White House.

Their primary goal is to install permanently based forces around the world like we have in Germany and Japan in order to provide a quick response to any conflict. Presently, bases are being built in Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Turkey, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kyregyszstan, India, and the Philippines, and by a construction company owned by Halliburton, Dick Cheney's old company, called Kellogg Brown & Root.

One of PNAC's recommendations, made long before 9/11 is to conquer Iraq, get their oil fields secured and then to build permanent bases there as well.

So, we now have an administration that, domestically, appears to be using Orwell's novel, 1984, as a playbook for implementing their plans and, internationally, using the Project for the New American Century as their textbook. Much earlier they had believed that they would need another attack on the U.S. similar to Pearl Harbor in order to get their comprehensive plan off the ground and 9/11 certainly has provided it.