We are paying $8 million a year for the          privilege of living in an ungrateful volcano,          out of which we are in no circumstances to          get anything worth having.           These words, having more than a vague application to our time, were spoken by an obscure colonial secretary named Winston Churchill over 75 years ago. They refer to the disastrous British occupation of Iraq. That unhappy adventure led to the death of thousands of British troops, but at least the empire never descended into the hypocritical claptrap of proclaiming the noble motive of turning the country into a “emocracy.” Churchill knew his England was there for the booty, the magnitude of which then, as now turned out to be a disappointment. A second operative motive was racism. Kipling wrote: “ake up the white man’ burden.” Caucasians, with their assumed mantle of superiority, are duty bound to civilize and enlighten lesser beings. In his poem “ecessional,”later to become a popular hymn, Rudyard Kipling wrote:                  God of our fathers, known of old,                  Lord of our far-flung Battle-line.                  Beneath whose awful hand we hold                  Dominion over palm and pine          With superiority, as we know, comes responsibility. At this time, God was unquestionably an Englishman. Manifest destiny carries its heavy burdens. It is now apparent, however, that the Deity has immigrated to American shores at the beginning of the 21st century. This glorious news is conveyed almost daily from the White House. Should anyone consider this observation an exaggeration, one has only to consult Bob Woodward’ book Plan of Attack. Woodward, whose earlier love-in with the Crawford Commando, entitled Bush at War made him a White House darling, is one of the few, perhaps the only reporter with virtual unlimited access to the Oval Office.           Woodward, however, is a canny fellow and a clever amateur psychologist. He knows that, once an aura of trust is established, the interviewee may reveal more than he intends. When asked if he derives strength and advice from his father, George Jr. replies that he gets these qualities from a “igher father.” Whatever we may make of this, it may signify that we are presided over by a man who has never been assailed by such ordinary human limits as doubt. One of Bush’ memorable recent media appearances involved the president being asked if he had made any mistakes. He replied that he couldn’ think of any. Playing to the audience, Bush smirked that he would be better prepared next time.           One of the curious aspects of Woodward’ latest book is that it was approved by the White House, or to use the term now in fashion, “etted.” One might think that faint warning bells were tinkling in the back of neocon/radcon minds about Woodward. After all, this is the man who, with his co-writer Carl Bernstein, exposed Watergate and brought down Tricky Dick Nixon. On more than one occasion the author gently pulls the rug out from under our warrior king. It is fairly obvious that George W. did not want the public to know that the invasion of Iraq was a done deal before 9/11. Moreover, the reader is presented with the astounding disclosure that the president, in conference with his most trusted yea-sayers revealed the invasion plans to Saudi Prince Bandar before Secretary of State Colin Powell was informed. Has a top government official ever been so deliberately insulted? Amazingly, Powell took it when he learned. A Roman general would have fallen on his sword. A Japanese official would have committed hari kari. We do not expect such desperate measures in our arguably “ivilized”world, but perhaps the question arises: whatever happened to honor, pride, dignity? The White House might as well have sent an embossed message to the entire State Department saying: “ou are deadwood.” Still, Colin Powell soldiers on, diminishing a life well-lived, shilling for a corrupt and tragically misguided administration. It will be interesting to see how the general augments his tattered legacy in the inevitable spate of million dollar contracts and lecture fees that will follow his exodus from the corridors of power.           The wonderful Yiddish word, chutzpah is variously defined as shameless audacity, impudence, brass, gall, but a more dramatic illustration of its meaning, or at least more fun, is a short story. A young man, who has been called before the law, charged with murdering his parents, throws himself on the mercy of the court, his defense being that he deserves pity because he is now an orphan. If, however, there are varying degrees of chutzpah, this fellow is a rank amateur compared with our all-powerful vice president. Last week at tiny Westminster College in small town Fulton, Missouri, Cheney made his bid to join the immortals of history. The attempt at grand phrasing in the previous sentence is caused by the fact that this is the town where Winston Churchill made his legendary “ron Curtain”speech. Incidentally, Churchill borrowed that phrase from Queen Elizabeth of Belgium (1876-1965). Meanwhile, back to Cheney. In his speech, he attacked John Kerry’ military record. It is true that the First Amendment gives us license to mount such an attack, that is, until Inquisitor General Ashcroft obliterates it, but, consider the source. This is the man who avoided Vietnam by securing no less than five deferments. He married quickly when the draft board loomed. When the board’ rules changed to include men with dependant children, the Cheney’ firstborn entered the world 9 months and two days later. Well, no one ever said that Dick was a slouch at planning, but the real kicker came much earlier. When questioned about his brilliant avoidance of the Vietnam conflict, he replied: “ had other priorities.” How he escaped the wrath of various veteran’ organizations for that contemptuous and arrogant remark will remain one of the mysteries of our time. Cheney seems lately to have entered some sort of time warp. He still makes claims about intelligence reports that have long since been disproved.           It is almost beyond the bounds of imagination that there are still people appearing on TV, stating that we fought Saddam in Iraq to avoid fighting him and his minions on the streets of New York, Boston, etc. Is it possible that the American public still believes this drivel? Former presidential speechwriter David Frum made one of his numerous appearances on TV this week. Frum is the bloke who coined the majestic phrase “xis of Evil.” He has ridden that construction to fame and fortune. Striking while the iron was hot, he co-authored with the repulsive and manipulative think tank commando, Richard Perle, a book with the silliest and most mindless title in publishing history, The End of Evil. Boiled down to its barest essence the book’ thesis is that we must impose our will on the entire planet by military force. Further, we mist ensure that no other country must be allowed to pose a challenge, imagined or potential. When this is achieved, “hey”will have achieved the ultimate morality: they will be like us. It may be no accident that the suffix of “eocon”is “on.” Get it? In any case, here is David Frum’ latest Delphic utterance:          …The U.S. went to Iraq in order to protect Americans from Saddam Hussein.          The jaw-dropping imbecility of this remark lies beyond description. What is perhaps more frightening is that none of the “uits”on the program challenged Frum.           The fine art of political discourse has fallen on evil days. The grotesque revelations of the Abu Ghraib prison came to the American public through the heroic actions of CBS and New Yorker columnist Symour Hersch. Lest it be forgotten, Hersch is the reporter who uncovered the My Lai massacre, where over 400 Vietnamese civilians, many of them women and children were gunned down by American troops. It is not pleasant to bring up this loathsome moment in our history, but sometimes the forlorn hope arises that some noble purpose may be served if we can ever halt the interminable back-patting tendency of broadcasting how superior we are to the rest of this globe. Barbarous behavior must be understood in the degree of its nature, but the apologists for the torture scenes in Iraq and elsewhere immediately throw out the old, invalid argument: “hey do it.” This is the false logic of witless children. Johnny is about to be punished for misbehaving. His parents do not let him off the hook when he attempts to argue that brother Fred has done worse. Yet the hardliners spring forward, eagerly reminding us of the admittedly horrible beheading of Nick Berg. That action, no matter how unspeakably vile, in no way excuses the behavior of Abu Ghraib’ interrogators. Of Berg’ public execution Michael Ignatieff of the New York Times rightly observes:          …such provocations are intended to drag us down to their level. We are constantly being tempted to descend to the logic of terror itself.          And to close, characteristically, with words of wisdom, it is well to remember that, behind every silver lining, there’ a dark cloud.                 Cur