I’m convinced that the Neocon ideologues have played the U.S. for a chump in the Iraqi War. (1) These same clever plotters are now recklessly looking to manipulate us into a war with Iran. (2) Just the other day, the loathsome Henry Kissinger, “America’s Iago,” suggested in an interview that after the horrific London terror bombing (3) that the U.S. may need to consider attacking Iran, if certain conditions were fulfilled. (4) Isn’t it amazing that instead of having been tried as a war criminal for his odious activities as Richard Nixon’s Secretary of State, he is still in a position of influence? (5) What does that say about the grip that evildoers presently have on the U.S.? In Ancient Rome, it was a crime for anyone to do harm to the Republic which was punishable by either exile or death. (6)

Kissinger’s hostile musings reminded me that there is such a thing as a snakelike persona! The Neocons, too, easily fall into that low category. I first encountered that deceitful phenomena as a young man back in the late 50s, when I was working on the docks as a stevedore in Baltimore out of Local 829 of the International Longshoreman’s Association. The union hall was located not far from historic Fort McHenry. I’m sure that this kind of untrustworthy individual can be found in every country and at every level of every society, particularly at its influential foreign policy-making organs. (7)




I noticed that within that close-knit Baltimore environment of stevedores, men mostly of sound judgment, there were a few snakes, that everyone had to be constantly on guard against. The snake character, a pitiful example of humanity, lacks a soul in my opinion. You would never see him on picket duty, helping a friend in need, or putting himself on the line for a principled motive that might advance the cause of human rights, harmony, peace or justice. Doesn’t that description recall for you, “The Mother of all Neocons” - the vicious, conscience-challenged and warmongering Richard Perle, or that wormy William Kristol, or more precisely, the repulsive War Hawk, Paul Wolfowitz, the prime “architect of the Iraqi War?” (8)

Once in a tavern, in South Baltimore, I witnessed a WWII veteran, an ex-member of the fabled “Darby’s Rangers,” who had lost one of his legs in the battle of Normandy, denounce a snake, a fellow dock worker, who had been spreading malicious lies about him, as “a worthless piece of garbage!” The snake, whose identity is unimportant to this narrative, didn’t deny the charges, but without answering the hero, he quickly existed the bar room to the derision of its patrons. I pray to live to see the day, when a gutsy American statesman will likewise rise up to blast the wily Neocons and send them all crawling back into the slimy holes that they came out of.

The snake’s “thing” is to cause chaos - to divide people - to foster discord - to manipulate - and to destabilize. He gets his depraved pleasures behind the scene, as a wire puller, by playing off one man, or group, against another, irrespective of the baleful consequences of his satanic plans. The snake acts out of a jealousy, but sometimes he acts out of a need for revenge, or just to make himself feel important. Mostly, he does it to advance his own agenda. Isn’t this what the Neocons have done to America with respect to the blood stained Iraqi War? Isn’t that their devilish goal with regards to Iran? Hasn’t America been used by them to advance, not the cause of our Republic, but their special interest - Zionist Israel? (9)

In any event, within the longshore community,the snake’s classic M.O., was to spread a false rumor that “A” had insulted “B.” Then, an easily excited “B,” when he got wind of the canard and without checking out its truth, would slash out at “A.” Sometimes, these encounters ended in the parties talking through the rumor and seeing that it was baseless. On other occasions, the scenario might end up in a brawl with someone getting seriously hurt. Once, at least, a snakes’ lies led directly to the the killing of an individual. It is only in retrospect, that I now can see the conniving, but much more sophisticated part, that the Neocons have played in the lethal Iraqi affair and how the U.S., a party buying into their insidious machinations, via a gung-ho Bush-Cheney Gang, a mostly cowardly Congress, and a complicit Media, had become their chump!

It would be inaccurate to blame the present sad condition of America concerning its involvement in the quagmire of Iraq on just the slippery Neocons alone. The Bush-Cheney Gang bears the major brunt of that responsibility. There are special interests, too, like “Big Oil,” and operatives within the powerful “Military Industrial Complex,” that have pushed for the Iraqi war and are also urging for a U.S.-led war against Iran. They all warrant strong censure, as well, for their despicable conduct. (10) In the case of President George W. Bush and VP Dick Cheney, they richly deserve impeachment and removal from their respective offices for all of their lies, deceptions and “high crimes and misdemeanors.” (11)

Finally, thanks to the release of the compelling “Downing Street Memos,” (12) and the splendid work that Think Tanks, like the Institute for Research for Middle East Policy (IRmep), and others, (13) have done over the years in revealing the cutting edge part the Neocons have played in using America as a chump over Iraq, that this seminal issue has become clearer. (14) The only question that remains is this one: “When are the American people going to wake up and fight back to restore our Republic, which rightfully belongs to them and them alone, under the U.S. Constitution?” (15)

Notes:

1. http://batr.net/neoconwatch/

2. http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=6371

3. http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,15961272%255E663,00.html

4. http://www.cfr.org/publication.php?id=8255

5. http://www.zpub.com/un/wanted-hkiss.html

6. “Rvbicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic,” by Tom Holland.

7. “Conspirators’ Hierarchy,” by Dr. John Coleman.

8. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/17/1442215

9. http://www.irmep.org

10. “The Sorrows of Empire,” by Chalmers Johnson.

11. http://www.impeach-bush-now.org/

12. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

13. http://www.washington-report.org/

14. “Neocon Middle East Policy: The ‘Clean Break’ Plan Damage Assessment,” by Adam Shapiro, E. Faye Williams, Khaled Dawoud, Muhammed Kaddam and William Martin.

15. “America, Awake!: We Must Take Back our Country,” by Norman D. Livergood.







© William Hughes 2005

William Hughes is the author of “Saying ‘No’ to the War Party” (Iuniverse, Inc.). He can be reached at: liamhughes@comcast.net.