What Country Am I From?

Thomas Hutchings
24 August 2006

Ho Chi Minh City – Living in Southeast Asia, I access international news from various sources, not just those in the U.S. I was intrigued by a story in the August 23, 2006 Bangkok (Thailand) Post (Breaking News, 17:09 local). It reported on the arrest of 175 North Korean defectors in Thailand who had fled the dictatorship via China with the help of missionaries.

As it was reported in the Bangkok Post;

"No one has told us, so we don't know about it. We do not have information on this," a North Korean embassy official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "We will not go to immigration to see them. We have not been told about it," he added.

The story continues about the possible fate of the defectors and the option of being sent to South Korea.

But, that is not what interested me.

The interesting part of the story was a comment made by a UN official.

“Speaking privately it was "quite normal" for North Korean officials to shun their estranged compatriots.

Either you are with them or you are against them.

They (the North Korean authorities) can't really cope with people who think independently."

Gosh, where have I heard that before? That’s right, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Since November 6, 2001, Bush and his fear-mongering administration continue to lie to the American people, are “robust” in their efforts to illegally usurp the U.S. Constitution, and maintain the hackneyed “with us or against us” admonishment.

After the Connecticut vote where Bush-supporting Joseph Lieberman was ousted in a Democrat primary by newcomer Ned Lamont, Vice-President Dick (Halliburton) Cheney was quick to warn,

“that these votes would encourage "al Qaeda types" to think that "they can break the will of the American people."

Oh, that’s right. How could I forget? In a so-called U.S. democracy, people have the right to vote for whomever they feel is the best candidate, but not in the Bush-Cheney model of democracy.

An editorial by the Philadelphia News on August 11, 2006, stated it correctly;

THESE PEOPLE have no shame. Their contempt for democracy is so great they will stop at nothing to undermine it. Their adherence to fundamentalist beliefs that blinds them to reality is frightening. They must be stopped.

And that's just the Republicans.

Sadly, the Bush fear-mongering supporters in the press will work to maintain that “With us or against us” conflict motif. As reported in the Boston Globe (A convenient threat: Kuttner, August 12, 2006),

“DICK CHENEY was certainly farsighted when he declared Wednesday that Ned Lamont's victory over Joe Lieberman would comfort ``Al Qaeda types."

Kuttner’s comments focus on a Wall Street Journal piece written by editorial writer Daniel Henninger. His column was entitled, “Democrats Knifed Lieberman on Eve of Airliner Plot.”

For an editorial writer for WSJ to connect a democratic vote with a terrorism plot is unconcionable and demonstrates how far some are willing to go to maintain support for the illegal war in Iraq; a war based on the most blatant lies by George W. Bush and his administration.

Kuttner is correct in stating that the Bush administration will focus their immediate attention on critics of the single word “waronterror.”

Kuttner’s opinion is that as America goes into another voting season the main message from the Bush White House will be “and if you’re against the Bush strategy, you are of course with the terrorists.”

Kind of sounds like North Korea, doesn’t it?