Bush Calls Dems "Irresponsible" on Iraq

i love how house majority whip james clyburn calls bush a cow boy in the article "bush calls dems 'irresponsible' on iraq'". there is no particular reason why i am amused by this statement other than that i find it very true....

the american government is running out of money to support the war, eh? their financial difficulty reminds me of what professor martin laba said in lecture the other day. he said that bush made a pubic statement encouraging all american citizens to go out of their houses to shop. his reason was that if americans did not participate in consumerism, then the terrorists would have won. i suppose i see a correlation between america's economy and how active these supposedly-citizens-but-now-consumers are, but still, he seems to attempt to conceal the seriousness and level of damage of the iraq war on not just america but the entire world by relating the war to shopping. the act of shopping is often taken light-heartedly as it is a form of casual leisure and entertainment. once bush puts "shopping" in the picture, the war does not seem so awful anymore, at least on the surface. while trying to mask his so-called "cow-body style showdown", he reinforces the capitalist socio-economic system and reproduces relations of social inequalities. how convenient! when there are innocent people dying every day in the middle east, the capitalists in america are getting more affluent and purchasing more louise vuitton, as encouraged by their president!

i don't want to say consumption is the root of such evilness because it is not. bush employs consumption as a means to legitimate his idea. however, perhaps if everyone cuts down shopping, it could be an act of taking a political stand - anti war? it's an interesting perspective, isn't it?