- What Is It They Stand For?

Americans traditionally thought of their country as a "city upon a hill," a "light unto the world." Today only the deluded think that. Polls show that the rest of the world regards the U.S. and Israel as the two greatest threats to peace.

This is not surprising. In the words of Arthur Silber:

"The Bush administration has announced to the world that this is what the United States stands for: a vicious determination to dominate the world, criminal, genocidal wars of aggression, torture, and an increasingly brutal and brutalizing authoritarian state at home. That is what we stand for."

Addressing his fellow Americans, Silber asks the paramount question: why do you support these horrors?

His question goes to the heart of the matter. Do Americans have any honour, any humanity, any integrity, any awareness of the crimes their government is committing in their name? Do they have a moral conscience?

How can a moral conscience be reconciled when they continue to tolerate a government which has invaded two countries on the basis of lies and deception, destroyed civilian infrastructures and murdered hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children?

The killing and occupation continue even though Americans now know that the invasions were based on lies and fabricated "evidence." The entire world knows this. Yet they continue to act as if the gratuitous invasions, the gratuitous killing, and the gratuitous destruction are justified. There is no end of it in sight.

If Americans have any honour, how can they tolerate a government that claims immunity to law?

Answers to these questions vary. The people ask over and over, "What can we do?"

They can do very little when the freedom and independence of the watchdog press was destroyed by the media concentration that was permitted by the Clinton administration and Congress. Americans who rely on traditional print and TV media simply have no idea what is afoot.

Political competition failed when the opposition party became a "me-too" party. The Democrats even confirmed as attorney general Michael Mukasey, an authoritarian who refuses to condemn torture and whose rulings as a federal judge undermined habeas corpus. Such a person is now the highest law enforcement officer in the United States.

It failed again when the Democrats refused to impeach Bush and Cheney. Without the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, America can never recover. The precedents for unaccountable government are too great. Without impeachment, America will continue to sink into dictatorship.

Today Congress is almost as superfluous as the Roman Senate under the Caesars. On Feb. 13 the U.S. Senate barely passed a bill banning torture, and the White House promptly announced that President Bush would veto it. Torture is now officially the American way. The U.S. Senate was only able to muster 51 votes against torture, an indication that almost a majority of U.S. senators support torture.

Bush says that his administration does not torture. So why veto a bill prohibiting torture? Bush seems proud to present America to the world as a torturer.

USA is a country devoid of truth, morality, decency and honour. It is a blight upon the world.