The people�s chorus in the wings:

The boys are playing tin soldiers. Well, let them have their fun. We�ll pick up the broken  pieces tomorrow. So what? Nobody seems to mind. Nobody in an office of responsibility seems to mind. So just let them go on. Go on playing blind man�s buff.

Rummy:

Who�s the boss here? I don�t know. Nobody knows. What does it matter anyway? Have fun while the sun is up. Fill your pockets, kill the doubters. We don�t need a reason. Just grab the booty while there�s some left. We�ll screw you all before you know what hit you!

Hey, there went a soldier. Put another one in his place. Oops, there went ten soldiers in one stroke. Oh well, just put another ten in. There aren�t any more left to replace them? Well, let�s play marbles then. Let�s drop the marbles on these rocks here. See how they explode. Look at all the shattered pieces of critters that were happily dancing a little while ago. What was that you said? Did we get a reinforcement of tin soldiers. That�s good news. We had to pay hard cash for them, but what does it matter. We are not the ones who pay anyway. Oh, the dumb little bastards will pay. Someone will pay, one day. It doesn�t really matter. This is just a game anyway. We�re having the fun of our lives. And, you see, we can�t lose. That�s the best part of it. We have it all figured out so we can�t lose. You dumb bastards will never see how we screwed you.

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Dubya (connected to Condi through a wireless prompter):

Well, let�s see, we�ve gotten Central Asia so unhinged that all we can do now is to leave it alone to die a natural death. So, ok, that�s Central Asia. Push it over in the corner. Maybe we can hold on to it a bit longer until we can�t squeeze anything more out of it. When the civil war has killed off most of the slobs, we can walk in and take over what�s under the ground. Now, what�s next? Iran? Well that�s not a problem. Israel will nuke them. They won�t know what hit them.

Next is India. We�ll play friends with India for a while, until they get to be too dangerous for our power play. Those suckers are so poor anyway, they can never put an end to their own internal problems. So why worry? We�ll go on playing friends with Musharraf too, for a while. The general is playing a good hand and we�ll keep him happy for a while.

Ok, who�s next? There�s China of course. China is a giant and we don�t know what they�re up to. But those poor uncivilized buggers will never understand what the good life is and they�ll just go on screwing up their own country. So that�s good. The problem is they want their share of the black gold. We�ll do our best to trip them up, but that�s a bitch. We�ll have to figure out a way of screwing them real bad. Giving support to the opposition? Maybe. The way we managed so well in Ukraine. There are always ways and means, but perhaps we shouldn�t nuke them. It just might backfire.

Oh North Korea you say? You don�t really take North Korea seriously, do you? They are starving for God�s sake. They are too hungry to hoist their own flag. What did I say? Did I say �evil�? Oh well, that didn�t mean a thing. I had to say something at the time. I had to play the game. I had to keep our boys doing the goose stepping bit. Keep them in line. Play tough, that�s what it�s all about. Give them an enemy and they�ll close up around us. The war on terror is a good one. It�ll keep them in line for generations to come.

And then Putin is a bit of a problem of course. It�s getting a bit tangled there. Let�s just stay out of his way as much as possible. We�ve got to move his imperial ambitions to the back burner. Cut off the arms of the octopus. But let him play his own scare show. Better if the people don�t see what�s going on. Chechnya got him into power and Chechnya, if handled right, will keep him in power. But no more empire in the east! Amen.

Now, there�s Africa. No real problem there. Those bellhops are dying off anyway, from starvation and from AIDS. Then we�ll walk in and take over all their resources. That�ll be some booty when we get around to it. If we can just get the damn liberals to tone down their meddling. Those damn folks have to be taught a lesson anyway. We�ll get their socialist hides, one way or another. We�ll beat them on election day, that�s for sure, but we�ll have to keep them scared so they�ll see the risk they�re running and shut up. We have all the trump cards after all. It�s who counts the votes that matters.

Europe is playing our game. No problem there. They are afraid they�ll lose what they have if they don�t go along with us. They�d better go along. Or else. Or else what? Oh, I don�t know. We certainly must have some means of keeping them on their toes. No? Oh well, don�t worry. They have their own problems too and they have gotten it into their heads that they should listen to the people. They should never have started doing that in the first place. But you know, those socialists don�t know that the good life is over. It�ll be over very soon for all those blue-eyed people lovers. For God�s sake can�t they see that all you have to do is let the people work and worry so hard that they don�t even have any time left to protest and dream of a better life. Let them suffer, that�s what we�ve always done to them and look at the victories we�ve won, look at the pinnacle of power we�re sitting on. Suffering makes people pliable. Subjugate the masses, keep them in line, that�s the way to do it. Let them grumble some, but not too loud. Spoils the look of it. We�re on top of the world. Watch us running the show!

Now, what�s going on in our own back yard? That�s the strangest thing. Those Latinos don�t seem to see our point of view any more. Do they really believe they can run their own business? What nerve! What na�ve pretentiousness! Poor uneducated natives running their own country! What fools! But the day will come when we�ll get them to toe the line again. They�ll see that they�re too poor to do without the money we shower them with. Of course not as much as the huge sums they pay back, but that�s another story. We fool them all the time. The IMF and the World Bank have it all set up so it�ll be a win-win.

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Dubya (without the prompter):

Hey, what�s the noise on the street? What�s that banging on the door? There are millions of people out there? Is that what you�re seeing? What�s the matter with them? How did they get loose? I thought we had them all trained. Hey the roof is caving in. Help, I am choking. The walls are cracking. What do we do now? Someone broke their invisible chains. How is that possible? I thought we�d convinced them they were all happy. We�d told them to watch television and have fun. Why didn�t they just do as they were told? And they have their own Eiffel Tower at Disney World. What else do they want? They don�t even have to go to Paris. We give them everything they might possibly want here at home. And they come beating our doors down.

All right, this is the time. Give them all anthrax. What do we need the people for anyway? They�re just heavy ballast. Or, wait, throw them some white phosphor grenades. It works faster.

Where is the switch to the command room? Hey, you�re tying up my hands, you crazy neanderthal! Do you know who you are dealing with?  I am the bloody President of� Hell, that bloody hurts, you nitwit! You don�t know what pain is, do you? Damn it Dick, can you reach the button to launch the rockets? They�ve gotten me tied up hands and feet, I can�t move a finger. They�re swarming into our bunker like locusts. Hey, what did I do to you, you scum? Is Rummy there? Where did Condi go? Damn, the lights went out. Are you there Dick?

What the hell went wrong? I thought we had it all figured out.

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The people�s chorus, coming onto the stage now:

Hubris precedes the big fall. Blind man�s buff it was. The boys are all gone now and we�re left here to put the pieces back together. The earth is changing, but the planet is still turning around its axis. Nobody can stop it.

The horror of the day after nightfall is the loneliness. The boys playing marbles and tin soldiers very effectively severed our links to the rest of the world. We are on our own now. We�ll have to rebuild a system of justice and cooperation. When the minds of children are allowed to rule, the world falls apart and chaos threatens.

We are no more the big boys on the block. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and say: This is all I am. I am just a woman. I am just a man. I am just a child. We are all in this together and we have to reconstruct some form of sanity. But the rest of the world doesn�t trust us any more. Nobody is going to help the pariah we�ve become. We�ll have to start building a future all on our own. Building trust, building justice, building freedom and peace. Learning to live in the world, not on top of the world.

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Copyright 2006 by AxisofLogic.com

Siv O�Neall is an Axis of Logic columnist, based in France.  She can be reached at siv@axisoflogic.com

Read the Biography and additional articles by Axis Columnist, Siv O�Neall