The lives we lead are complex and that is why we need to use our own thinking to do whatever is best for ourselves and our neighbours. Today I read president Bush's speech delivered at the National Endowment of Democracy and again I cannot understand why people are fooled by this president.

Yes, I know why we are being fooled, we just gave up thinking for ourselves and we let the biznessmen and politicians do the thinking for us, after all they are the experts. No, these biznessmen and politicians are not the experts! President Bush has been specifically labeled "the most dangerous president ever" by historian Harold Meyerson and his economic policies have been described as "the worst in over 200 years" by Nobel Laureate George Akerlof.

President Bush says that "successful societies privatize their economies and secure the rights of property" and I say that peaceful societies are generous enough to share their wealth and help other societies to be peaceful as well. The war in Iraq; American soldiers and Iraqi civilians die everyday as part of Bush's export of democracy: the privatisation of the Iraqi economy and the securing of their properties by foreign corporations. Professor Michel Chossudovsky describes one effect of global privatisation as the international dollarisation of ever cheaper commodities where developing countries are forced to give up the production of their own basic staple.

But there is much more to the privatisation of Iraq's assets as there is now the creation of new wealth through a new economic phenomenon, that is a re-reconstruction of the economic infrastructure of Iraq by American crony companies, at crony American incurred costs plus expected profits and using foreign labour as American companies cannot trust local workers. Democracy has become a unilateral global commodity to be exported by the barrel of the American gun. Forget "self-determination," this word doesn't exist in the newspeak vocabulary of president Bush.

At the National Endowment of Democracy, Bush didn't limit his preaching of democracy to the Middle East, and he extended his testy vision of exporting his democracy to the Far East by asserting that "our commitment to democracy is tested in China." But I would suggest that Bush has much to be tested in what he knows and understands about China. In fact, Bush should thank China for contributing more than a trillion dollar to the American economy and he could even learn a lesson in economic understanding as China has been experiencing the most impressive growth in the last 25 years.

References

Pertinent articles published in Ensign

White House President Bush Discusses Freedom in Iraq and Middle East. Remarks by the President at the 20th Anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy. United States Chamber of Commerce Washington, D.C. November 6, 2003 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031106-2.htm

Meyerson, Harold The Most Dangerous President Ever May 1, 2003 The American Prospect vol. 14 no. 5, http://www.prospect.org/print/V14/5/meyerson-h.html

AFL-CIO Nobel Prize Winner Calls Bush Economic Policies 'Worst in 200 Years' August 13, 2003 http://www.aflcio.org/yourjobeconomy/todayseconomy/ns08132003.cfm

Zand, Bernhard Slaves of the Foreigners October 9, 2003 Der Spiegel http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4937.htm

Iraqi GirlBlog Myths, Truth And U.S. Re-Construction September 9, 2003 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4621.htm

Pelham, Nicolas Contractors in Iraq Accused of Importing Labor and Exporting Profit October 14, 2003 Financial Times/UK, http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1014-01.htm

Statement of Rep. Henry A. Waxman. Contracting Abuses in Iraq October 15, 2003 http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs_108/pdf_inves/pdf_admin_halliburton_contract_oct_15_state.pdf

Center for Public Integrity U.S. Contractors Reap the Windfalls of Post-War Reconstruction October 30, 2003 http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/

Guihong, Zheng Economics with Chinese Characteristics Urged November 3, 2003 China Internet Information Center, http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Nov/79016.htm