Four More Years?
So, now Bush has formally passed the buck on the war in Iraq. Wonderful. Let someone else sort it out after he's retired and back out full-time on the golf links.
The other day I mentioned that Bush is behaving like an autistic. Now, I've written a column about it for my latest piece in L.A. Weekly:
For the moment, he continues to view the Iraqi debacle like an autistic child staring blankly through an iced-up window. None of the complex and perilous realities he has created seem to penetrate his discourse. We’re now up to 2,300 American deaths and more than 17,000 wounded. Iraqi casualties are much higher, and uncounted. Yes, there have been elections, but there is no functioning Iraqi government. We have, we are told, “stood up†the beginning of an Iraqi fighting force, only to learn that its first high-profile campaign last week was mostly a phantom exercise. Meanwhile, the Iraqi security forces have turned out to be the same as the Shiite death squads. What rump regime there is in Baghdad is unduly influenced by the mullahs in Iran. For this, we have thrown our children into the meat grinder? To liberate the Iraqis from Saddam Hussein and replace him with self-flagellating, Iranian-backed religious zealots?
Take a moment to read the entire piece before commenting.
March 23rd, 2006 at 5:03 am
For a fascinating close-up view of what it is like to try to report the news out of Iraq and how vastly much worse things are than they seem on our screen, check out an article by Orville Schell in the latest NY Review of Books. Then compare that to the smiley-face commentary from officialdom.
Another image comes to mind: the steady news bulletins put out by the Argentine junta about their glorious triumphs over the British imperialists in the Falklands/Malvinas war.
March 23rd, 2006 at 5:33 am
“Fifteen lousy seats are what’s needed to start putting on the brakes.”
What’s the point if those 15 seats are won by Democrats who support the war in Iraq and the worldview that put us there?
At the moment, Democratic heir apparent of Hillary Clinton, the Senator from Tel Aviv, supports Bush on Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East, with the possible exception that she’s unwilling to even say the word Palestine in public.
There’s no need to impose some restrictive litmus test on voters. They must not be asked to hate George W. Bush or to demand his prosecution, but rather be persuaded to vote for his opposition — if a credible one can be found.
March 23rd, 2006 at 8:29 am
“the Senator from Tel Aviv” This is all you need to know about this poster.
March 23rd, 2006 at 8:59 am
“The Chinese, especially, wanted to cozy up to the U.S., and the ending of the war cleared the way.”
And made ending it possible since they were 10,000 pound gorilla in the room. I agree with your piece even mentioning the history without laying all the blame on the US and giving the other players a pass. At least I don’t think you did. Game theory and the outcome depends on what the opponent does. Bush bit a poisoned apple, as those who share his reasoning level are apt to do based on a pollyanna outlook of helping: the great emancipater. It’s doubtful it will work but should it? I suppose it should but that will have to be up the this so-called new government. We can’t do it for them. Is staying cretinistic the natural state for this place? Why couldn’t they have evolved a just society on their own? I know ours isn’t just either which is the biggest false anaolgy on the planet.
March 23rd, 2006 at 9:55 am
If anti-government militias are staging frontal assaults on police barracks and prisons, isn’t that sort of a civil war? It’s at least got to be one of the symptoms.
March 23rd, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Very good column, Marc. The image of the cut-off child staring at patterns on the window, feels tragically right. For a long time Bush has looked to me as if a cherry bomb has just exploded right behind his eyes. It’s a condition that might arouse sympathy if he weren’t running the country and doing damage that increasingly appears to be beyond calculation. (I mean, with all the political and fiscal horrors you detail, we aren’t even bringing up environmental issues….The past two Scott Pelley pieces re: global warming on “60 Minutes†were enough to make any thinking person curl up in a fetal position.)
About censure, I admit I’m still ambivalent. I don’t exactly disagree with your impatient contention that the dem base ought to stop with the wrist slapping urges, and just get on with it, and change the situation in a more direct manner by focusing on the mid-term elections. Yet, by the same token, there is something awfully unsettling about looking the other way and humming with fingers in one’s ears when the President of the United States does something so measurably and demonstrably illegal, namely the FISA-free wiretapping.
In any case, good piece. Glad it’s out there.
March 23rd, 2006 at 1:39 pm
The trillion dollar figure is staggering. It makes me wonder about when a country just goes too far, spends too much, tries for something just a little out of it’s grasp, and the ride is over. We’re fools if we think it can’t happen here as it’s happened to everyone else sooner or later. For all the ridicule Paul Kennedy took after the demise of the Soviets, and the slump in Asian markets, his fundamental thesis probably still has merit. Could Iraq be the thing that knocks the keystone out for the US?
March 23rd, 2006 at 2:55 pm
“Yet, by the same token, there is something awfully unsettling about looking the other way and humming with fingers in one’s ears when the President of the United States does something so measurably and demonstrably illegal, namely the FISA-free wiretapping.”
Yes, rosedog!
Isn’t it possible for the Democrats both to talk forcefully about policy differences as well as respect their oath to defend the Constitution? I think so and I also think that the people will only take the Democrats seriously if they can get off their duffs and say and do something without fearing what the Republicans will say.
March 23rd, 2006 at 4:28 pm
“For the moment, he continues to view the Iraqi debacle like an autistic child staring blankly through an iced-up window. None of the complex and perilous realities he has created seems to penetrate his discourse.â€
Bush is more like an adult suffering from arrested development—he is still sixteen and totally dumbfounded by his surroundings—he can’t believe he’s sitting in daddy’s Oval Office.
He would much prefer playing —oilman with the Bin Laden money; being an owner of the Texas Rangers; a part–time fighter pilot ; and an incompetent Governor of Texas—the perfect qualifications for becoming President.
I have an outlandish thought, suppose Bush had to actually work for a living, and if he didn’t have a daddy or the Bin Laden money to finance all his failed escapades–he would probably be working as a stock clerk at Wal-Mart—maybe not, it takes some skill to complete the online application.
“Our administration is concerned about deficits, and the way they deal with deficits is you want to control spending. And I hope Congress lives up to their words. When they talk about deficits, they can join us in making sure we don’t overspend. They can join us and make sure that the appropriations process is focused on those issues that — those items that are absolutely necessary to the American people. I’m pleased that members of the Congress are talking about deficits. It means they understand their obligations not to overspend the people’s money.”
President Bush,
Remarks by the President in Photo Opportunity with His Cabinet
Jan. 6, 2003
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Bush is more like an adult suffering from arrested development—he is still sixteen and totally dumbfounded by his surroundings—he can’t believe he’s sitting in daddy’s Oval Office.
I’ve always thought of him more as a frat boy who doesn’t realize college is over.
March 23rd, 2006 at 6:32 pm
Epistemology and GOP Presidents:
for Nixon: What did he know and when did he know it?
for Reagan: What does he know, and does he know that he knows it?
for W: Does he know as little as he appears to?
March 24th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
I think Elinor and Kevin both have it right. He is a teenager and a frat boy - not contrasting visions. What is amazing is that he was able to stay behind curtin. All you have to do is go back to early 2005 and see the stories in print or on radio/tv extolling his virytues. Chris Matthews, who compared him to Prince Hal before the election, now told his viewers that Bush was the secondcoming of FDR, of Churchill. And he wasn’t the only one.
Call me an unreconconstructed leftist but Bush always seemed inadequate and over his head to me. Confirmed by his truly pathetic performance in the 2000 debates. But it was more important to talk about Gore’s “rudeness” - his snorting - and his “lying” about touring a disaster in Texas with James Lee Witt when it was Whitt’s deputy that made the news. And his frat boy demenor came out in those ridiculous nicknames he gave people and his petulance when asked a hard question - see Helen Thomas - was and is pure teenager.
So let us not forget how we got here. A lot of people who have known better made this guy into something he clearly is not - a functioning adult.
March 25th, 2006 at 3:31 am
“So let us not forget how we got here. A lot of people who have known better made this guy into something he clearly is not”
Go to Crooks and Liars and listen to Chris Mathews desert the sinking rats for an example of one of those people “who have known better” or should have among the press who sneered at Al
Gore finally coming to terms with some of what they have wrought. It’s equal parts maddening and satisfying. Too damned little too damned late and the country will suffer for years because of the slack the “liberal” media have cut Bush since at least 2000. Two weeks ago Mathews was still denying that most people could dislike Bush. I’ve been marveling for six years that anyone who isn’t a moron could actually like this peevish little prick, much less trust him with serious responsibilities.
March 25th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
rlc - I forgot to mention that it’s good to see you back commenting.
March 25th, 2006 at 11:39 pm
If one believes that Bush broke the law in his wiretapping program, how could one NOT support censure? It is serous enough line to draw while conceading, on a practical level, the trauma of Impeachment is hardly worth the effort. For that matter, in the interest of fairness, George Bush should not be Impeached.
If one turned on the T.V. for months after 9-11 one heard nothing but unanswered arguements to the effect that “red tape must be thrown aside” “the war’s over when the President says it’s over (McCain), “our system makes it impossible for the authorites to defend us” on and on in an endless know nothing drone. How did the Democrates stand up to it? Oh, about as well as radical alturnative media scribes. We elected and reelected a born again bumpkin who should be running a K Mart, and to publicly humilate and discard him for being a poor President would be an arrogant act of mob cruelty.
So by all means, censure. Cooper can’t quite see it as just deserts for the guy who lied us into an immoral stratigic blunder that will kill thousands more and haunt us for decades. If only Bush had lied about immaterial sexual behavior in a trumped up extortion suit; ah, then we could get out the paddle.
March 26th, 2006 at 7:09 am
I believe in a healthy democracy with a healthy and viable alternative competitive party. I also believe in the peoples’ judgement, over the biased judgement of those of either party, to elect our leaders.
In this spirit, I have offered constructive suggestions as to how the Democrats can capitalize on a golden opportunity to give us some obviously needed balance and competition by winning back at least ONE branch of our government from the over-confident monopoly party we now have.
The comments I read here are disappointing. I see
more defeat gradually being pulled from the jaws of victory, using the same negative attitudes that has tipped the balance needed too many times before. I see the underestimations, the anger, the blame on voters that is leading down that road well traveled.
As a concerned conservative who understands, values, and appreciates the need for balance in our gov’t, I want to see at least one Democratic majority in the House or Senate. This is not going to happen with personal attacks, verbal or legal, on a sitting president during a time we have soldiers at risk.
Now you decide whether you have met a messenger or the enemy. Some will want me killed either way.
March 26th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Jim, no one is going to run on the things I’m saying here, or even publish them much in any outlet, main or small stream, of the media. They are simply that thing that hurts: the truth.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:25 am
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