"In the book, “Captain America and the Crusade Against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism,” Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence mention a featured article printed in the German magazine Der Spiegel on the Bush administration’s crusade against evil. Accompanying the article were satirical cartoons. Talk about imitating cultural images! Bush is drawn with a Rambo body holding an automatic weapon and ammunition belts. Vice President Cheney takes on the identity of “The Terminator.” National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice is dressed as Xena, the female Warrior Princess of Hollywood film. Donald Rumsfeld becomes the comic book character Conan the Barbarian, holding a sword dripping with blood.
One might think that the Bush administration would object to such a depiction, eschew these images. Not so. When Daniel Coats, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany at the time, visited the editorial offices of Der Spiegel, we are told he was not there to protest the cartoons but to report that that “the President was flattered” by them. Coats ordered thirty-three poster-size copies of the cover to take back to the White House. Bush’s staff, depicted on the cover, each wanted a copy.
Chase the beast, you run like the beast. Plot and plan like the beast, you begin to think like the beast. Arm for the kill against the beast, you embrace the weapons of the beast. Look the beast in the eye, and you get a terrible shock. You discover you have become the beast."
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