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... Fegley
English 101
November 24, 2003
George to George: What Orwell Could
Have Taught Bush About Imperialism
Sometimes youth is a reason and sometimes it is only an excuse. ... Maybe if Orwell’s “Killing an Elephant” had been required reading during inauguration week in January 2001, with the usual follow-up quiz, our country might not now be in an imperialist mess.
Orwell tells us that he went alone to check out reports of an escaped elephant. ... (Orwell 120)
There were relatively few of us who thought that war in Afghanistan was optional. ... As Orwell might have put it, when we checked out that elephant, we were far from alone in deciding that it, indeed, required shooting. ... It’s sort of two steps forward and one step back, but we don’t have to feel shame when we think about it. ... Bush had gone from being too dumb to be president to adequate to a bragging, swaggering idiot cowboy. ... I knew it the way my parents taught me, as a small child, to evaluate the intentions of adults. ... Bush said not. ... When anyone ( the people in this or other countries or the UN, for instance), said we needed to get together and really assess this elephant, Bush said there was no time for that. ... Perhaps the most important question is whether our president had led us into imperialism by accident or by choice? ... Bush would only have to lean back and wait for re-election. It’s hard to believe Bush could be that naïve, even harder to believe it of his advisors. ... Iraq has been the victim of imperialism and tyranny since before it was Iraq. ... Maybe he would have felt better had he known about the oil. ...
Orwell knew that empire was evil, as bad for the occupier as for the exploited. ... And, like Orwell, the Bush administration’s aim was poor: The elephant shot at ( Hussein) was not the elephant hit. ... Bush has, at most, five years to bind the wounds and get Iraq on its feet. ... George Bush will be remembered by Iraq and by the world, not as a savior, not as one willing to work with others for the good of all, but as a greedy exploiter.
Approximate Word count = 1837
Approximate Pages = 7.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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