Europe at the end of the war

I know how they feel, those jubilant hoards dancing in the streets in 1945 at the end of the war. The foreign occupier was vanquished and life would get back to normal. That's how I feel as we count down the final days of the Bush regime. So much of what has happened  in the past four years is foreign, and should be foreign, to us. If you thought this was a Republic, Dick Cheney set you straight in a TV interview when he said that the American people get their say every four years, after which they can be ignored. And that's just what the Bush Administration did. We, that is, the United States, established the United Nations so that there would be someone to stop military aggression and imperialism--which did nothing to stop Bush in Iraq. Although everyone with a brain knows that torture is not a realizable way to elicit useful information, the Bush Administration reinstituted the practice. While spending our money on their imperial agenda, bridges, roads, and environmental standards have fallen into disrepair and decay. As the infrastructure languished, and education and healthcare headed for  the dumpster, the Bush Administration has dumped billions of dollars into their aggressive and destructive foreign adventure in Iraq.

Bush, who is not known to hand out reprieves or pardons either as governor or president, just pardoned Leslie Collier of Missouri, who was convicted of unauthorized use of pesticides and violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. In his "Shermanesque" march to Crawford, it seems Mr. Bush will leave a scorched American behind him, passing as many acts and laws as he can to further weaken environmental protection laws. 

We have pursued an aggressive and expensive foreign policy and, like Germany in 1919, we are vanquished and broke. Today Bush said he was pleased with our efforts in Iraq. What's worse is that the press, our press, those people who are suppose to be on our side, has become an organ of propaganda, endlessly churning out misinformation and crude scare tactics so that like a totalitarian government, Bush could do what he wanted when he wanted and no one had the guts to ask a question or offer a contrary opinion.

So on Jan. 20, I will be one of those dancing in the streets. No, I don't think Obama can resolve all of our problems--I'm not even sure he can resolve some of them within his first term. But it's a start. The alien will have returned to the mother ship, the occupation is over and perhaps this government will remember that they represent the people. Indeed, it will be a day for dancing in the streets.