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Stabroek News
The Voice

It's the bullet, not the ballot
published: Friday | November 5, 2004


Melville Cooke

Melville Cooke

By de ballot or de bullet

By the Bible or de gun

Any which way,
freedom must come

­ Mutabaruka

WHETHER JOHN Kerry became president of the United States in this week's election or not, the results would have been the same for the people of Fallujah, Iraq. And these are the people who really matter.

The town has been surrounded by US troops and their allies, 80 per cent of the population has fled and the 'softening up' from the air is on in earnest. The attack - or shall we say another attack? - is imminent.

The latest example of the futility of democracy - an election to choose between two highly similar options, at least in their stances on the issues that really matter - has been a bit like a housewife watching a horserace in which her drunkard, abusive husband has bet their entire savings.

If the horse he chose wins he is going to have lots of money, spend it all on alcohol, get drunk, come home and beat her. If he loses the money, he will come home and beat her anyway.

If Kerry won, the attack would have gone on; Bush has won and the attack will proceed.

With the declaration of a 'War on Terror' (and you thought Don Quixote was foolish to fight windmills; try fighting a sentiment), George Bush has set in train events that no-one who follows him into the Oval Office dare derail. Anyone who retreats a millimetre from the constructed conflict would not win another term; in fact, given the right circumstances they would be hard-pressed to finish the current one.

AMERICAN HEROES

The very existence of the United States of America is based on the practice of 'ass-whuppin'; that is why John Wayne, Davy Crockett and Rambo are all-American heroes, crossing the line between myth and reality at will. The Native Americans got their asses whupped to clear the land; now it is the turn of the Afghans and Iraqis to get their glutes stomped to keep the Christmas lights on all year round in the country that consumes 40 per cent of the world's output.

It is rather interesting that those with the most at stake in the elections could not vote; after all, it is the people in Iraq, a de facto colony, who are losing their lives, sovereignty and oil (not necessarily in that order) who have the most to lose in the short run.

They at least should have been given a chance to register their stance.

It is better late than never, though, and the Iraqis will be able to state their opinion on Bush, in the form of his clone, Allawi, in January. That is after Allawi and Bush have done their level best to wipe out all traces of opposition.

There is a chillingly funny scene in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 in which George Bush is addressing a meeting of white folks. He grins that macabre, folded lip grin of his and says: "This is an impressive crowd, the haves and have-mores. Some people call you the elite. I call you my base."

It is this base, this heart, that has the election results map of the United States looking like venal blood runs through all but its very edges. Come to think of it, it does.

FARCE

Democracy is a farce. It is a tool of the wealthy to give the illusion of control to the majority. When it goes awry, as it did in Venezuela - twice - they show their fangs and claw away at the very process they have sworn by. Kerry may have been marginally better than Bush, but the margin would not have been enough to give the people of Iraq room to breathe freely.

The difference between 'ballot' and 'bullet' is only two letters, but there is a world of difference. George Bush has used bullets to shore up his ballots - started a war then declared himself the person fit to protect the US - and it would seem that only bullets will make real change in Iraq. For, buoyed by the election results, his majority victory, Bush is only cranking up.

The fourth estate of the media has taken the fifth amendment on the true story of Iraq; the US elections never offered a chance of change and the ones in their country in January will be a farce.

It may sound dramatic, but in the end fundamental change comes down to who is willing to stick it out to the bloody end. It is hardly ever the ballot. It is the bullet that really matters.


Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.

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