by James Rothenberg

Fooling most of the people all of the time is standard job procedure for Washington's state managers, who could no more level with the common citizen than would the CEO of a giant corporation level with the temporary help. Compared to the replicating managerial class the citizenry is temporary, lacking the insights and having none of the tools necessary to interpret, let alone affect, public and foreign policy.

Government does not have the right to privacy, yet it enjoys it. The Bill of Rights specifically and diametrically affords the people that right, "extending the ground of public confidence in the Government", but increasingly the people lack it. The powerful in every age and place entitle themselves to secrecy for some higher good - that there are some things it wouldn't do for the public to know, that the rabble has to be protected from themselves. This is far from unique to our neoconservative shadow government, although there's a case for their abusing the privilege.

The population is kept informed just enough to be able to follow their cues. Please your superiors, stand erect when the national anthem is played and salute when that flag goes by. Genuflect to leaders who mouth words like liberty, justice, and democracy. Following the cues will lead one in the desired direction of conformity where ideas are framed in ways that assure American motivations are cast in the most favorable light.

Consider the adjectives used to describe the Cheney team's handling of Iraq - mistake, folly, misadventure, blunder - terms used equally by critics from the left and right. These terms seem to convey more than they actually do because they overlook the initial motivation for the attack and deal only with its aftermath. The cat burglar does not blunder in pulling off the gem heist, only when tripping up and getting caught.

On the surface, the current situation pits those who are weary of the losing struggle (loss of life, limb, wealth, and reputation with nothing to show for it) against those who feel that hunkering down may still save the day (American pride and honor in not letting it "get worse").

Superficial talk aside, attempting to describe the Iraq situation without an understanding of the original motivation for our attack is like trying to figure out how far away you are without knowing what you were heading for. The Cheney team cannot state clearly why they want to stay because that would reveal the truth about why they wanted to go.

At stake are Middle East energy resources, the control of which transcends this particular administration and has been fundamental US policy since after the second World War, now an even greater imperative due to peak oil scenario (Recall the vice president's still-secret energy meetings). The issue is not access to the oil - it is control - and the enemies are not Iraq, Iran, and Syria but China, in the main, and to lesser degrees Russia, India, Japan, possibly even a united Europe.

The Middle East is either going to be linked up to the "West" (meaning the US) or go over to the Asian bloc (meaning China), and the power that goes with this control is enough to make or break a superpower. That's why we went, that's why we're staying, and that's what cannot be stated in the polite circles of influential opinion.

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James Rothenberg [send him email] was born in 1939 and made his living as a professional golfer. His trade articles have appeared in USGA Golf Journal and PGA Magazine, as well as authoring the book, The Skeptical Golfer. In more recent years this skepticism led him into the field of social and political criticism, exchanging "making a living" for "living for making", that is, making the slightest dent in establishment hypocrisy and double standards. James is a Populist Party featured columnist.