Whipping boy Bush

Five years after 9/11, philosopher Andre Glucksmann looks at

the logic of the new Chicago, asking how we will face today's world of extended gang warfare.

The

attack on the World Trade Center is never-ending. The horrors of September 11 still set hearts and minds aquiver.

Increasing numbers of Americans (79 percent compared with 72 percent a year ago) and Europeans (66 percent, up from

58 percent in 2005) consider international terrorism a "massive threat" (according to a

survey conducted by the German Marshall Fund and the Italian San

Paolo society).

snip

In the media, the commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York and

Washington often turned into an exorcism seance with George Bush as the perfect whipping boy. When attacks

and threats increase, he is to blame. When terrorists here and at the other end of the world engage in unscrupulous

murderers, this is his sorry legacy. When in Iraq the faith war swells, when Muslims in Morocco, Algeria,

Afghanistan and Indonesia slaughter each other, when Iran builds nuclear weapons, then they don't look for those

responsible, it is Bush and Bush again.

snip

In the past, people used to stick dolls with pins to ward off bad

luck and kill evil spirits. In our day we apostrophise the supposed master of the world, accusing him of abusing his

"superpowers". He is the cause of all our evils. If he disappeared, universal harmony would be

re-established. Our magical behaviour wins on two counts. While our finger points to the cause of world chaos, our

angelic smile assures that once the evil power has been paralysed, everything – the dove and the snake, the lion and

the lamb – will coexist in harmony. Five years ago, public opinion was riveted on the mastermind of the largest

terrorist attack in the history of the world. Now, however, on September 11, 2006, all eyes are on the abominable

Bush and the lunatic America. The bloody instigators of the massacre fade from memory, to the point that they

desperately attempt to get back into the limelight with video cassettes drawing attention to their presence.

But

let's be serious. Whatever his trials and whatever his errors, Bush did not invent the planetary extension of a

terrorism that existed well before he came to power, and will continue no matter who succeeds him. The Cold War

stopped with the fall of the Soviet empire, but the cold warriors have been there all along.

The

article originally appeared in German on

Perlentaucher on September 21, 2006

http://www.signandsight.com/features/964.html