It’s been five years since the tragedy of September 11. I’ve been suffering from repeated sleepless nights due to the same nightmare:
The bad dream goes like this. It’s some time in the near future, 2007, 2008 or soon after. Guided by a religious fanatic whose goal was to spread American Style Democracy throughout the world, the USA has lost its financial and moral standing. It turns out that liberating people at gunpoint simply does not win hearts and minds. "Coalition" Troops were not showered with flowers as they marched into Baghdad. It was not a re-enactment of the Liberation of Paris.
In the nightmare, America stands on the brink of a Third World War.
Indeed, much of the world views America as the greatest threat to global security. We’re more feared and disliked than Iran, North Korea, Hezbollah, Hamas or even Israel, combined. As France denounces the war on terror, Russia and China keep their cards close to their chest.
It seems that the USA has created and inspired more terror than anything else. Since 1945, the US has been actively or covertly involved in 72 foreign adventures. And now, the whole world wonders who will be America’s next target.
Long gone is the first rush of post-9/11 sympathy. Now the world tries to hide a feeling that we asked for it. Should America suffer another terrorist attack will the world feel we deserved it? Most likely.
In the nightmare, Bush’s invasion of Iraq has degenerated into a full-blown civil war. The liberation of Iraq and subsequent missions have bankrupted the US. There’s not enough money and there’s far too many Iraqi Insurgents thus making it nearly impossible to support the troops in the field with proper supplies. While failing to meet mounting Iraqi resistance the US is forced to reinstate the draft. American students (and their parents) take to the streets in massive demonstrations against the Bush regime. Ultimately, US forces suffer terrible casualties, and are forced to retreat in disgrace. Bush never admits he was wrong, of course, but continues to feed us some new form of Turd Blossomisms as if he were shoveling slop into the pigsty.
Iraq ends up divided into three separate states. There is a Sunni west, a Kurdish north and a Shiite led east and south. Even as the three new states quarrel among themselves, none of them are grateful to the US for "liberating" them. Operations Liberty Shield and Iraqi Freedom have only made Iraqis hate America intensely and indelibly. Even worse, the Shiites, who are closely aligned with Iran, win control of the oil rich areas of Iraq.
The vast oil reserves in Iraq, which were supposed to cover America’s huge bill for their "liberation," fall into the hands of Iran and Iraqi Shiites sympathetic with Iran. Iranian oil flows to Iran’s supporters Russia and China. None of the oil reaches the US and our precious Hummer H3s.
The US continues to be hated for its support of Israel. Israel continues to be hated for its "Matrix of Control" program in Palestine. All that hatred further isolates the vulnerable Jewish state from its neighbors.
The nightmare takes a toll on my already depleted pocketbook: One day, the US Treasury does what it’s always done to finance US trade imbalances and domestic deficits: it issues bonds. However, on this black day no one shows up to buy them. That’s right, the Japanese and the Chinese do not bid on what they perceive to be worthless paper.
China separates its currency value from the dollar.
In my dream I start to shiver; why must I turn the heat off when it is so cold outside? Iran will sets up its own oil bourse allowing payment in a variety of currencies. For instance, Iranian oil may begin to be paid for in Euros or Yuan, not dollars. Oops, there goes our security. We should have kept the dollar backed by gold in Fort Knox. Arab nations once "friendly" to the US choose profit over old loyalties.
Great anxiety sets in at this point in the dream and once I woke up wanting a Big Mac. It was that horrifying. Times get tough for America. Unable to pay its annual dues to the UN, the US loses its clout in the Security Council. Russia, China and India dominate. Recalling how America a) lied about Iraq, b) sent that miserable excuse for a human being, John Bolton, to be US "ambassador," and, c) ignored the UN’s humanitarian pleas to stop Israeli bombardment of civilians in the Lebanon, UN members regard the US as a rogue state and close their ranks against America.
Here comes the nasty part of the nightmare: War Crimes trials. Amnesty International files lawsuits in the War Crimes Court at The Hague citing Bush’s illegal aggression in Iraq, the resulting huge civilian death toll, and his authorization of the use of torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
At this point I always wake up screaming: The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) finds a way to abolish the 2008 election in order to keep George W. Bush in office and immune from war crimes trials. Not to mention this helps them maintain and expand their iron grip on American resources while shutting down dissent. On good nights I dream that the PNAC only throws Bush to the World Court and replaces him with Condi Rice or some other dictatorial figurehead.
From thence onward the view that America is the greatest threat to world security swells far beyond the anti-American fears harbored by Europe, Canada, Tavarua and any other place you can think of. Such fears are taken seriously by the U.N., which is now controlled by countries who distrust and dislike the U.S. such as Russia, which heads NATO.
At this point in the nightmare, the UN demands that the US allow International Atomic Energy Agency officials to monitor disarmament of American nuclear and WMD stockpiles. Failure to comply will mean economic sanctions. Dependent on imported goods and oil, the US realizes it must submit or starve. But of course, we consider ourselves to be right and inviolate. The White House refuses to comply. George W. doesn’t take orders or opinions from anybody.
Economic sanctions are imposed. America’s much-vaunted standard of living takes a dramatic downturn. In a short time The United States turns from the world’s only super power to the world’s largest Third World Nation.
What a nightmare! Thank God Dr. Gruber is on 24-hour call and only part of the horror is reality!.. So far.
Elizabeth Gyllensvard edited and contributed to this article.
