Frankenstein's Lesson

Pity poor Frankenstein.



Victor Frankenstein's life was marked by horrible tragedy. His wife and loved ones killed. His life's work responsible for the deaths of many innocents.



In the end, the only thing that gave Frankenstein's life meaning was his mission to destroy that which he created.



With a casual remembrance of the story, it is easy to feel sorry for the sad scientist. But we must remember that Dr. Frankenstein brought his ruination upon himself. The intelligent, aristocratic son of wealthy parents, Frankenstein decided to play God. What he made was not a monster, but simply a creation. Frankenstein himself turned the creature into a monster.



When, in his final moments, Frankenstein sought to ensure the Creature's demise, Frankenstein was not being noble. He was simply trying to end the abomination which he created.



Clearly, the monster in this great story is Victor Frankenstein.



Call it Frankenstein's Lesson. It is a lesson that sorely needs to be relearned.



I bring to mind that story to state beyond a shadow of a doubt that George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq was not a humanitarian effort. It must be remembered that Bush is simply trying to end the abomination that his father helped create.



There is an attempt afoot to rewrite history. In this rewrite, the U.S. is the hero-liberator of an oppressed people. Those who opposed the war are isolationist-cowards.



This is the Big Lie.



Repeat it often enough and loud enough and soon it will be in the history books.



But before this becomes accepted history, let's first revisit actual history.



Saddam Hussein came to power in 1979. He promptly and – with Reagan administration support – began a war with Iran. While the Iran-Iraq war continued, from 1980 to 1988, the Reagan/Bush administration sold weapons to both sides. Nominally, we were supporting Saddam because we thought Iran was worse than Iraq.



In the meantime, Oliver North and others of the Reagan team were fighting a secret war in Nicaragua. The Reagan team illegally raised money to wage this war in Nicaragua – unapproved by Congress – by selling arms to Iran. So, we were supporting Iraq/Saddam ideologically, but selling weapons to Iran for pragmatic reasons.



We supported Saddam as he got his weapons of mass destruction and as he gassed the Kurds. It wasn't until 1990, when he invaded Kuwait that the U.S. began to oppose Saddam. That's the actual history of the Reagan/Bush I, and now, Bush II legacy.



All this time during the 1980's and into the 1990's, the Peace and Justice crowd were busy trying to stop all this illegal and immoral war-making and tinkering with other sovereign nations. The Peace and Justice community opposed the Reagan administration's selling of weapons and support of BOTH SIDES in the Iran/Iraq War.



Of course, the Reagan/Bush administrations ignored those meddlin' hippie kids and waged their wars anyway. Reagan let a few faithful followers fall on their swords and take their minimal punishments for laws broken and people killed, and then proceeded to do what they wished.



Then, as now, Americans looked the other way. Believed the Big Lie.



Now, twenty years after initially setting up Saddam Hussein, Bush II convinced enough Americans that Saddam is a menace and that we must wage war against his country. Ignore the fact that we set him up in the first place. He had to be brought down. The creation had become a monster.



While Bush is pushing this new Big Lie, he is dropping poison from the skies in Colombia, killing crops and the poor farming communities that depend upon those crops. Again, the Peace and Justice community is yelling out the injustices that are being committed in our name.



Twenty years from now, when the next generation of Bush is in office, he will tell the world, “We must go to war against Colombia. The people there are being menaced by an evil dictator.” Then, as now, the new Bush will say, “The peaceniks would have us bury our heads in the sand and do nothing, but we must act.”



Of course, the real history will be that the peacemakers were calling for justice all along. Unfortunately, that will be forgotten as the next Bush will insist on killing more innocent adults and children and all the while he will say it was unavoidable. And, again, people will believe him because the creation will have become a monster.



We are being sold a Big Lie. Don't buy it.