On the eve of the Republican National Convention, Karl Rove went public with the GOP’s battle plan. Speaking of Bush, he said 'People know who he is and they know what his beliefs are and they know who he is and they know what his beliefs are.'

Is that clear enough?

Because if it isn’t, Rove went on to repeat the same redundant lines. 'We’re going to be able to remind people of who he is and what he is all about. I mean, this is a person that, whether you agree with his policies or not, people tend to like him. They know that he believes what he believes and says what he believes.'

Rove managed to convey this message in a three-minute interview with FOX’s Brit Hume. He also emphasized his intention to highlight the President’s struggle for 'liberty and freedom in the Mid East.'

Back in June, Dan Bartlett, the White House Communication Director also laid out the GOP’s campaign blue prints. 'We'll continue to talk about how Saddam Hussein was a threat, and his ties to terrorism, and we will not give an inch on what we've said in the past.'

One must give grudging credit to the GOP for the Stalinist discipline of their party. Starting with Rudy Gulliani’s speech at the Republican National Convention, every line was vintage ‘Rove speak’. McCain, Schwarzenegger, Zell Miller and Cheney echoed much of what Rudy said – especially in regards to the war on terror. At the end of the convention, George took to the podium like some rock star. He stuck to Rove’s script. 'At least you know what I believe and where I stand'. He avowed that he was intent on ‘expanding liberty’ and ‘extending the frontiers of freedom’. Go sing that song in Gaza and Nablus and Jenin, George. Bush used his standard line that 'freedom is the Almighty’s gift to every man and woman in this world.' Well, considering the president’s record of collaborating in the repression of the Palestinians and conducting a brutal occupation of Iraq, one must assume that George is not on God’s side.

I believe I know where Bush really stands. He stands with Ariel Sharon of Qibya and Jenin and Rafah and Sabra and Shatila. He stands against the liberty and freedom of the Palestinian people. He subsidizes a vicious occupation regime that steals other people’s real estate at the point of a gun and inflicts draconian collective punishment against defenseless men, women and children. He has lent a hand in laying every brick of the Palitentiary wall that will confine the Palestinians in open-air internment camps.

I believe I know the real George Bush. He is a cruel and unjust man who, even before 9/11, had a three-word policy to deal with the Palestinians: 'let them bleed'. George ‘Abu Ghraib’ Bush used the nation’s trauma after 9/11 as a convenient excuse to launch a pre-emptive strike against the one country in the Middle East that didn’t have weapons of mass destruction.

Yes, it’s a good thing that Saddam is gone. But the Iraqis insist that it would be an even better thing if the Anglo-American occupation packed their lethal gear and headed home. No WMDs. Saddam’s in Jail. Who needs this occupation? The GI’s on the ground realize that their very presence is the cause of the insurgency. Why doesn’t George?

Bush has given his neo-con advisers, every one of them a certified Likudnik, a free hand to chart the future of the Middle East for the greater glory of Ariel Sharon. Their allegiance is to Tel Aviv, not to America.

The neo-cons have a single mission – to give Sharon a free hand to pulverize the Palestinians and dominate the region. None of this is a secret in the Middle East. While the average American might not have a clue about the neo-con’s agenda - ‘neo-con’ has become an Arabic word. The Arabs don’t think of George as the great liberator. Rather, they see him as a tyrant who wants to inflict his vengeance on the whole region for the sins of a few.

So all this talk at the Republican Convention about Bush’s efforts to spread liberty and democracy in the Middle East should be discarded as just another Rove ruse. Those who promote such views are either liars or just plain ignorant slobs with the intellect of dog fleas.

Let’s hope they are just practitioners of a core value of the neo-con movement – deception. Because if they actually believe their stale mantras, we don’t have a prayer. You gotta believe they are just well rehearsed conventional Republican liars just following Karl Rove’s script.

Why do American presidential campaigns have to be so insulting to those we have already injured? Have you no sense of decency, Karl.



--Ahmed Amr is the editor of . This article was used with permission.



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