in 2001, in response to an attack on the US, our president called for a crusade against terrorism, the first action of which crusade was to be the invasion and conquering of a country harboring islamic fundamentalists. he fairly well demanded that the world, which was quite sympathetic to the US at the time because of the attack, go along with the crusade. "you're either with us or against us." his use of the word crusade did not go over well with older nations and cultures. there were those unfortunate incidents between 1095 and 1250 wherein christians from europe sought to conquer "the holy lands," which meant the city of jerusalem, which was a part of the arab muslim world at the time. he also said that this new crusade was a war between good and evil, giving the adventure the air of a clash between civilizations, with a large undertone of religious difference. guess who was good and who was evil. without any acknowledgement of a possible gaffe, in the passive mode of much government "reframing," the word crusade was quietly dropped and war was substituted. more lately the war against terrorism was renamed the struggle against something, until someone realized that being a struggle president isn't as catchy as being a war president.
now, in response to a disastrous beginning effort by the homeland security agency to aid those in dire straits due to hurricane katrina, the president proposes a massive reconstruction. an earlier effort by the federal government to rebuild a chunk of the southern states after the civil war is also known as the reconstruction. the latter, earlier reconstruction gave us the term carpetbagger, a pejorative term referring to those who flooded the south looking to scoop up those federal dollars. watch out louisiana, mississippi, and alabama. here come the carpetbaggers again. halliburton is at work already. darkwater too. just to make damn sure we know who is not getting on any government gravy train the president suspended the law requiring prevailing wages be paid for federally funded work, so that the new carpetbaggers can pay local workers scut wages. of course he still wants to lower taxes for the carpetbaggers too.
how will the locals take to reconstruction? what will be the next name of the struggle to reconstruct bush's popularity?
UPDATE: check out these two maps i got from digby, his sept 11 post. the legacy of slavery.
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