What Would Abe Lincoln Do?
As promised, here is the portrait of our beloved Hal that our beloved Ralph painted especially for our beloved Woody Creeker Mag — all wrapped up in the image of our beloved Abe. All is well in the world. Except of course in the Middle East.
I wonder what Abe would do as president in today’s situation? Lincoln did put an end to the Civil War, and Bush Jr. has almost created an unbelievable Civil war that threatens the entire Middle East. It’s extremely depressing. I’ve been desperately looking for some answers which is very difficult without Hunter. I do however, recommend a couple articles if you don’t have time to read the 4 big books out about Iraq:
Mark Danner’s Article in The New York Review of Books analyzes these three to explain how on earth the United States caused this disaster:
1.Bob Woodward’s State of Denial: Bush at War, PArt III
2. Ron Suskind’s The One percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
3. James Risen’s State of War: The Sectret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
Read the "memo" from Rumsfeld to the president two days before he was fired. Do leaders of the free world really use that kind of 6th grade language in war-stategy documents? Or was it planted just at the reading level for mass media? I bet Hunter would know! Was it the only way to get Bush to read a pentagon memo, finally to reduce it to single syllable bullet points? (Mark Danner’s article points out that Bush reads little more than the bible)
In terms of how we might get out of Iraq, read Harper’s October issue which has an excerpt from:
1. Sen. George MCGovern, and William R. Polk’s Book Out Of Iraq.
This is what Hunter said about it on the day after Sept 11 in his ESPN column:
The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now — with somebody — and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.
It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy. …
…We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows? Not even the Generals in what remains of the Pentagon or the New York papers calling for WAR seem to know who did it or where to look for them.
This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed — for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won’t hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.
OK. It is 24 hours later now, and we are not getting much information about the Five Ws of this thing.
The numbers out of the Pentagon are baffling, as if Military Censorship has already been imposed on the media. It is ominous. The only news on TV comes from weeping victims and ignorant speculators.
The lid is on. Loose Lips Sink Ships. Don’t say anything that might give aid to The Enemy.
–Hunter S. Thompson, Hey Rube
Until Next time, your friend, who thanks Laura and Peter for finally sending the Abe file,
Anita Thompson
p.s. Keith Stroup (Hunter’s friend and lawyers who founded NORML) emailed me about the last entry to say "As you know, we all felt it was an honor to know Hutner as a friend, and to work with Hunter when he either had a great idea, or needed some help himslef." Thank you Keith!
p.p.s RE: the questions you have about the lawsuit that a former employee filed against Hunter’s estate: Hal is wrapping it up very soon and will cause as little embarrasement as possible to her or anyone else.
p.p.p.s. I’ll post some of Hal’s interview soon, I just got a little carried away linking all the above articles, and now I really have to get back to the library. JESUS MOTHER OF GOD.. I CAN’T BELIEVE THE SEMESTER IS ALMOST OVER. I SEE THE FINISH LINE. HOT DAMN
