"It is time for the president and Republicans in Congress to stop trying to bully their way through this and work with Democrats to end the war. It's time for the president to show respect to the American people, who voted overwhelmingly to leave Iraq." --DNC Chair Howard Dean this week.
CRAWFORD, TEXAS--Well, what great-timing, Cindy Sheehan is down there on the property she bought. Maybe the president can take his former strategist Matthew Dowd's advice and finally go down to see her? Naw, he knows it's too-late. Too-late to leave Iraq with his honor intact. Too-late to avoid all the investigations, and too-late to be demanding anything whatsoever from anyone, anywhere. Not even mercy, not even pity, and certainly not forgiveness. The only fate worthy of scoundrel is physical destruction by their own hand, ignominy and eternal scorn. Interestingly, this about the time it hits a president that this is his fate (because he's president). Nearly all of them look like ghosts when they leave office.
But Bush has taken it to a new level in American history, and will likely be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Benedict Arnold, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, James K. Polk (who gave us the Mexican-American war), James Buchanan (who couldn't prevent the Civil War), Richard Nixon, and Herbert Hoover. The fact is this: President George W. Bush didn't prevent the events of September 11th, 2001 from happening. He and the GOP didn't protect us, but neither did the Democrats who helped engineer past foreign policies that gave us those events. Nonetheless, the response was inadequate, and our fighter jets were told to stand-down by someone--and who exactly would have that power except the Executive branch? Take it as you will, but this writer predicts we haven't remotely seen the fruits of the administration yet.
Today, our goober president was in-hiding again down at his ranch, so I must have spoken too-soon on that one. When the going gets-tough, Bush finally runs home to sit in a fetal-position at his ranch (or runs to mom and dad, as he always has). This is a good sign, it means he's probably cracking. An important question: what time does Ted Nugent come by to give the president his full-body massage? He's having a blast, but he still has to send these half-baked statements out thanks to Karl Rove. I mean honestly, if he just said, "Ooogaaah-boogahh!" it would make more sense. He seems to believe that the laws-of-physics are at his bidding--if you have no money for actions in Iraq into 2008, there will be no "longer tours of duty." Jesus Christ:
"I recognize that Democrats are trying to show their current opposition to the war in Iraq," Bush said in his weekly radio address from Crawford, where he is on a break of his own. "They see the emergency war spending bill as a chance to make that statement," Bush said. "Yet for our men and women in uniform, this emergency war spending bill is not a political statement, it is a source of critical funding that has a direct impact on their daily lives."
(AP, 04.07.2007)
Bush continues:
"That means the soonest the House and Senate could get a bill to my desk will be sometime late this month, after the adverse consequences for our troops and their families have already begun," Bush said. "For our troops, the clock is ticking." (ibid)
Except this--again--is a lie. The president is playing politics with the troops, and in a classic case of projection, accusing the Democrats of doing just that. You could call it a preemptive "I know you are, but what am I?" attack. It's not working, and the White House is just doing what it has all-along--buying time. This is why he says "the clock is ticking." It's running-out on him. That's what this whole budget debate is about: "Will the war end when Bush is president?" That's what he and the GOP fear most, but incumbents could find that it's their best out that would allow them to disown the war and let Bush own it all. In fact, he does, and the world knows it. He appears to be the last one who doesn't. Is he repressing it, or is he really as isolated and inept as most assume? No, not co-president Cheney, I mean President Bush...
Without a trace of irony, he's correct that time is running-out for our troops in Iraq. The longer they stay there, the more endangered they and we are. Our security--and the security of the region and the world--become more-and-more endangered the longer we occupy Iraq and Afghanistan. The analog is that the longer we're powering this civilization on petroleum and other chemicals and minerals, the closer we edge towards our extinction.This is the anarchy of power. The hope is not in political-unity, but in adversarialism. Our current anthropological crisis is due to acquiescence and cowardice, as well as the warm rationalizations behind "the conventional wisdom." This is a mangling of language, the shadow cast by power, and something even the ancients knew well:
When Congress does not fund our troops on the front lines, our military is forced to make cuts in other areas to cover the shortfall. Military leaders have warned Congress about this problem. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Pete Pace, recently testified that if Congress fails to pass a bill I can sign by mid-April, the Army will be forced to consider cutting back on training, equipment repair, and quality of life initiatives for our Guard and Reserve forces. In a letter to Congress, Army Chief of Staff Pete Schoomaker put it this way: "Without approval of the supplemental funds in April, we will be forced to take increasingly draconian measures which will impact Army readiness and impose hardships on our soldiers and their families.
(whitehouse.gov, 04.07.2007)
Problem: we know that--at your urging--no-bid contractors have given our soldiers poor-equipment, provisions, and even tainted-water. To place these hardships onto the shoulders of the troops is your action, not that of Congress. As president, George W. Bush has never had any regard for the safety and well-being of American troops, or anyone. But it doesn't matter, because he's lost his GOP-majority and many allies, the majority isn't with him, and nobody with any credibility listens to him anymore except to counter him.
Reuters Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070407/pl_nm/bush_iraq_dc
White House Transcript of the President's Radio Address:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070407.html
AP Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070407/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush;_ylt=AmHRSmmXM5NSA.4KDNfaOikb.3QA
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