Mad Magazine & Dubya: What Me Worry?

In my adolescent years I never missed buying the latest "Mad" magizine.It depicted lampoons of American culture without par. The caricatures were were truly bombastic and left me gasping from laughter. In retrospect" Mad" hinted at the 1960's revolution which followed. There was also a darkness in the humor of "Mad"-hence the name.

"The Nation" magizine , which is the oldest continually published mag in the U S advertises a poster of Geo. W. Bush only very slightly touched-up to resemble "Mad's" signature character- Alfred E. Neuman("What me Worry?"). At the bottom of the picture appears " Because he doesn't read"(refering to Dubya).

Mad with or without the quote marks is an apt description of the course America has embarked upon with preemptive war in Iraq.This has s turned into a civil war and also Afghanistan's civil war over the drug trade started by U S and British mission creep policies. Bush continues to make boorish and inflammatory comments about policies in Russia and China. If America had an absence of guilt, the criticisms would have a better chance of being heeded. Preemptive war in Iraq and plans to redraw the the map of the Middle East- yet again- leaves the U S a large credibility gap. China helps keep our domestic economy running by providing work at wages that the American entittlement structure won't allow. Russia has large resrves of natural resources that we should have access. The present regime is infinitly better than Lenin's legacy of Stalin and the late Soviet Union.

Iran would appear to be following the letter of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Laws of which it is a signatory. Bush fails to mention Israel's 200 nuclear warheads and an American delivery system(Israel is not a signatory to the Non- Proliferation Treaty). N. Korea should be a multilateral project that needs the good will of China and Russia to make it successful.

Laura Bush, the president's wife recently gave a speech which included her now predictable reference to Dubya's early evening retirement " in bed by nine." What is she trying to convey? The job is too much for him? This is not the man she married? He has a clear conscience? Mrs. Bush, I think is probably more worried than I.