Ya wanna see something really scary?

I said a while ago I would try to make a usuable image of this and I finally did. And, yes, I know it isn't Halloween until Oct. 31.

It's the cover of German news magazine Der Spiegel for Feb. 18, 2002, over a year before the Iraq War began. It features (l. to r.) Colin Powell as Batman, Rummy as Conan the Barbarian, Bush as Rambo, Dark Lord Cheney as a mob hit man and Condi-Condi as Xena the Warrior Princess. As appropriate as they all are, Cheney's is especially so. And this was years before he actually shot somebody in the face. The caption says, "The Bush Warriors: America's expedition against Evil".

The weirdest part about this is that all five of the subjects thought this was a flattering portrait. John Shelton Lawrence reported in Blood Brothers: Bush's Rambo Delusion San Francisco Chronicle 08/25/02:

That American policymakers share the pleasure of superheroic fantasy was revealed this past spring in an incident with German news magazine Der Spiegel.

To accompany a "Masters of the Universe" article on the Bush administration's crusade against evil, Der Spiegel created a satirical cover depicting each national security player in the role of a zealous destroyer from American popular culture. George W. Bush, surrounded by his advisers, received a muscular Rambo body holding an automatic weapon and ammunition belts.

Daniel Coats, U.S. ambassador to Germany, visited Der Spiegel's editorial offices - not to protest the caricature or the article's viewpoint about reckless unilateralism but to report that "the president was flattered," whereupon Coats ordered 33 poster-size renditions of the cover for the White House. Each policymaker on the cover reportedly wanted a copy. (my emphasis)

You just can't make stuff like this up. At least I can't. I just don't have the imagination.

Tags: authoritarianism, bush administration, bush doctrine, daniel coats, spiegel