"Bull in China Shop" Art By Vic Roschkov [Canadian Editorial Cartoonist]
copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org
Americans are five years into a battle gone awry. Citizens of the United States cry out, "too much blood has been spilled, too many lives and limbs were lost," we the people want to, "Bring the troops home." Hence, Congress holds hearings. The inquiry is intended to help define the future. For many it is time to exit Iraq and end a futile war. The people have questions; when and how will we complete a failed mission. On April 8, 2008, the Senior Commander of multinational forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, American envoy to Baghdad, spoke to United states Senators and attempted to address the public's concerns.
General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker described an Iraq torn and in turmoil. Each official spoke of the significant, although still-tenuous political progress. The civil servants assured the United States Senators, Iraq is more stable and secure than it was a mere seven months earlier. However, they state improvement is "uneven."
Senators, who supposedly speak on behalf of the people, proposed there must be a plan. Several said America needs to make a correction. A few pronounced the course must be stayed. All agreed; Americans must have a strategy if Iraq is to ever be a successful, sovereign nation. These thoughts have been expressed for years, and little truly changes. A near million [or more] innocent Iraqis have lost their lives and many millions more have no home. For refugees and residents, employment is but a vision from eras long passed. Electricity and essentials are not part of daily life. Nonetheless, reports are progress has been made.
The rhetoric rises high up into the halls of the Capitol. As the world listens, people cannot help but be reminded of a bull in a china shoppe.
In a boutique, filled with fragile leaded crystal, porcelain wares of superior quality, sumptuous silver, fine figurines, and cherished collectibles, a beast, unfamiliar with the etiquette or elegance in this setting, enters and effectively destroys what once was beautiful.
Initially, the bovine is attracted to the glimmers of light. Refracted beams glow as the bull observes the glorious finery. The shiny surfaces are hypnotic for the animal. In a stupor, the bull moves towards what attracts him.
The bovine is as Americans. Citizens of this country are drawn to the radiance of black gold. Those who depend on petroleum products are mesmerized when they think of a place where the supply seems as endless as their demand. People who profit from the sale of fuel are also charmed. Indeed, those who have the means are more enamored. The oil-rich know that they can profit from the sale of the substance. Two of these tycoons work in the White house.
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are the biggest bulls man has seen for some time. These leaders of the herd were spellbound as they gazed upon fields of oil. Moneyed moguls who work within the Executive Branch of government led the herd into a crystal palace, or a nation State known as Iraq.
The two oilmen elected to office, bullies that they are, had smiled at the mere mention of Texas Tea in the fields of Iraq long before they ever claimed to have reason to invade the symbolic china shoppe. The aggressive cattle, also known as the Bush Administration, may have appeared clumsy in their calculations. However, these cows planned their entrance into the specialty store. The tycoons expected to shock the shopkeepers, and awe their fellow Americans. The bulls thought they would quickly clean up the mess they made. Then, they would exit triumphantly with treasures in hand. The bovine projected that they would accomplish their mission just as suddenly as they crossed the threshold.
However, the livestock did not understand; boutique proprietors and patrons might not welcome the destruction of valuable property.
Raging bulls rarely contemplate how a perilous circumstance would effect any sane storeowner, shopper, or sovereign nation. A charging bovine does not comprehend why the clientele within the walls of the shop, or civilians within the confines of a country's borders does not greet the charging creature with rose petals and open arms.
Again, we are reminded of an American Administration and the prospects the leaders of the herd envisioned as they proposed the United States and its allies attack Iraq.
The bulls, President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and then Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice did not consider the culture, the civilization, or the fact that every being has the right to choose independence or his or her leaders. Nor did the creatures who replaced a few of those in the corral. Future leaders of the herd were as blinded by the light of power as the previous beefy bulls were.
The cattle now labeled the Cabinet, are no more conscious of what occurs when you purposely break the treasures of others than the earlier group of mammals was.
Hence, the axiom framed by the former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, cattle extraordinaire continues to guide Americans, "If you broke it, you must fix it."
Indeed, the awkward, unaware animals busted the bone china, crushed the crystal, smashed the silverware, and flattened the figurines, and they continue to do so.
Fortunately, these bulls have money; although admittedly they beg, borrow, steal, or print the dollars and cents used to fund a futile attempt to fix the country they fractured. Regrettably, the beasts of burden do not realize they cannot repair what has never made sense to them. The bulls cannot restore health to a shop that was not fashioned in a style they are familiar with. Few of these creatures reflect on the wisdom of a physicist, the genius of a man who studied the scientific principles of matter, energy, force, and motion.
~ Albert Einstein
What the bulls believe is best is send in the young. Calves trained to act as the bigger beasts did and do, now crash into china shop doors and obliterate the fragile finery that is, or once was life in Iraq. Generals and Ambassador, similar to the elders in a herd, gather the broken glass. They collect the cattle in one locale or another. The emissaries, just as the leaders in a pack, attempt to repair relations with proprietors and the public.
However, these persons also approach those in the Persian Gulf as the Commander-In-Chief did and does. To the people in Iraq a bull is a bull is a bull.
None of the livestock fully understand as long as they occupy the shop, more treasures will be trampled. The merchant wants no missionaries, or mammals to demolish what for him was his own. Nor does the retailer appreciate a brutal beast in his shop or State. The Iraqi citizens, just as customers in the shattered shoppe do not crave advise from cruel cattle. "Correct" information from a bull who demolishes all creature comforts, seems contrary to those who have been terrorized by out of control cows for too long.
~ Albert Einstein
Money will not mend what was shattered and what will be razed as long as the bulls reside in country. Yet, the bulls bellow that they cannot continue to finance the destruction they have done and do. Cattle exclaim too much cash has gone to cracked crystal. Senator Clinton, who aspires to be the Lead of the American beasts explains, "We simply cannot give the Iraqi government an endless blank check. The question might be asked, why not.
The cattle found the dollars to destroy as they desired. Why might the Lead bulls and those who wish to have the title of Cattle Commander-In-Chief believe they have the resources to remain in the shoppe, with the promise to be less visible and destructive; yet, the bovine does not have greenbacks available for repair or recompense.
Might the bovines consider as long as Americans stay in the boutique and break the bone china, we owe the proprietor reparations. We bulls cannot ever fully compensate for what we caused. The only way we, "the American people," can clean up the mess we allowed our herd to make is to leave now, with sincere sorrow, and issue a blank check as a meager attempt to pay for the horrors we have wrought.
We cannot turn back the clock; nor are we able to replace the antique vases, or extraordinary entities once titled Mom, Dad, son, daughter, friend, or family. Bovine blunders and bungles will not provide property owners and patrons to live their lives free of fear and further folly. Perchance the adage bulls might adopt is, "If you break it; you pay for it and then, please, immediately leave the premises."
~ Albert Einstein
Sources and the Reality of Americans in Iraq; Bull in China Shop . . .
Recent Comments