Martin LeFevre: What Happened, Helen Clark?

The charges brought against activist Bruce Hubbard in New Zealand, who was arrested for making "offensive" comments to the US Embassy in Auckland, have import well beyond North and South Islands.

Despite its small size, New Zealand represented the only significant challenge left in the English-speaking world to Pax Americana. Therefore the Bush Administration executed a Œtwo-fer'--putting the squeeze on New Zealand's influential peace and free speech community; and testing Helen Clark's Administration to see if it's really ready to play ball.

American activists are well acquainted with these tactics. Basically, the strategy is to ignore protests at home, while making examples, through repressive puppet regimes or complicit allied governments, of those who oppose US policies abroad.

Helen Clark had the gall to oppose the war. "Who does she think she is?" exclaimed all the puppet-king's men (and one woman). "Better get ŒSheriff Howard' to set her straight."

It really rankled the Bushies when Clark made her dead-on remarks at the end of March that if Al Gore had been elected, the war against Iraq wouldn't have been started. (Those who say that Gore would have invaded just like Bush don't understand the man, or US politics. Bush is impervious to protest; Gore was not.)

What lies behind this keystone cops maneuver of arresting a hapless letter-writer in New Zealand? Why do the mighty US government and the arrogant Bush Administration give a rat's ass about a student-activist in New Zealand?

The aim is not just to discredit and silence peace activists in New Zealand, but to bring Helen Clark's Administration fully into line with the "global war on terror."

Clark has obviously decided that New Zealand's interests, and her own, were being hurt. So she signaled a desire to be helpful by sending armed engineers to Iraq.

The smirk-jerk and his cronies then decided that Clark needed to be tested. "Pass anti-terrorist legislation, and arrest someone," they inveigled, and she complied.

What happened to you since March, Helen Clark? Don't you see that the President of the World will never forgive you for telling the truth and standing against the USA?

Bush and his bunch are increasingly desperate. This arrest shows how scared and weak they actually are, and how tenuous their hold on power.

An effective opposition to US hegemony is emanating from New Zealand. Media outlets like Scoop have become a thorn in the side of the Bush Administration. So the Bushwhackers have to show that they can reach out and punch anyone, anywhere.

Please, Helen Clark, quit trying to have it both ways. That is what made the United States universally hated in the world. You did the right and, in the medium run, the pragmatic thing by refusing to sign on to American militarism.

The Bush Administration is engaged in an assault on the freedom of people everywhere. They are playing for all the marbles, and openly admit that this is a "war for hearts and minds."

Their goal is nothing less than solidifying and codifying global control of the economic and intellectual marketplace. But they will be defeated in 2004.

The Bush Administration wants to destroy hope, decide truth, and deny the highest aspirations of people everywhere for freedom and self-determination, all the while spouting their Orwellian double-speak about freedom and self-determination.

They want us to believe that resistance is futile, that those who oppose their hideous policies and agenda are marginalized losers, "dead-enders" like the terrorists they pursue without regard to borders or human rights or what is now laughingly called "international law."

The charge against Bruce Hubbard (and implicitly, Helen Clark) really reads: "Interfering with the global agenda of the Bush Administration."

- Martin LeFevre is a contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher. He has been publishing in North America, Latin America, Africa, and Europe (and now New Zealand) for 20 years. Email: martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net. The author welcomes comments.

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