Bring ’em on!

A lot has happened since Bush uttered those inopportune words: nearly 3,000 American troups are dead for no good reason; more than $300 billion has been wasted, with several times that amount expected to be wasted in the future; Democrats are in; Rumsfeld is out; Bush’s approval rating has slipped to new lows (e.g., his war in Iraq now has less popular support than did the Viet Nam war at its very lowest point); and the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group has issued a damning report about the mess Bush has created in Iraq. Bush no longer boasts about having “political capital” — mostly, he spends his time begging world leaders to pull him out of the mess he has made while they, no doubt, laugh at him. Even George Bush Sr. must know, at some level, that his own do-nothing presidency will be judged a wild success by comparison to his son’s catastrophe.

Said the president last week (12/07), in what must be the understatement of his presidency: “I do understand that progress is not as rapid as I had hoped.” Gee, do you think?

For me, one observation stands out as a glaring example of how out-of-touch Bush is with his country; indeed, even with reality: while virtually everyone in America is searching for a way to get out of Iraq, Bush is desperately searching for a way to stay.  Here’s my solution:  if Bush wants to stay in Iraq, then let’s send him there until he brings our troops home.  Better yet:  send his daughters.  Let him feel the anxiety that America’s military families are feeling every day of his disastrous presidency.  Yeah, send his daughters into Iraq and then let’s hear him say, “Bring ’em on.”

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grumpypilgrim

Grumpypilgrim is a writer and management consultant living in Madison, WI. He has several scientific degrees, including a recent master’s degree from MIT. He has also held several professional career positions, none of which has been in a field in which he ever took a university course. Grumps is an avid cyclist and, for many years now, has traveled more annual miles by bicycle than by car…and he wishes more people (for the health of both themselves and our planet) would do the same. Grumps is an enthusiastic advocate of life-long learning, healthy living and political awareness. He is single, and provides a loving home for abused and abandoned bicycles. Grumpy’s email: grumpypilgrim(AT)@gmail(DOT).com [Erich’s note: Grumpy asked that his email be encrypted this way to deter spam. If you want to write to him, drop out the parentheticals in the above address].

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Avatar of Edgar Montrose
    Edgar Montrose December 14, 2006 Reply

    Observing the events of the past several months, and in particular of the past few weeks, in which the Bush Administration has "stayed the course" while the entire rest of the world has formally recognized the abject failure of its policies, I am amazed and alarmed at the tenacity with which Mr. Bush and the conservatives hold onto their beliefs and reject all notions that anything is wrong. The best explanation that I can muster is that they are unable to recognize that there is a difference between "doing the right thing" and "doing the right thing the right (or wrong) way". This inability to differentiate between "what" one does and "how" one does it represents an immaturity and lack of sophistication-of-thought that I believed impossible in the modern world. Alas; not only is it possible, for nearly six years it's been running the show.

  2. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth December 14, 2006 Reply

    Grumpy: Take a look at this article from SFGate.com.  I think it might just suggest what's going on in Bush's dysfunctional head:

    If Vietnam's aftermath proved anything, it's that we are incredibly crappy losers. We deny, we reject, we evade, ignore and refuse responsibility until it becomes so silly and surreal that even the staunchest warmonger has to cringe in embarrassment. At this point, it seems nearly impossible for America to accept defeat with anything resembling perspective and dignity and the understanding that maybe, just maybe, we ain't all that saintly or perfect and maybe God really isn't necessarily on our side after all, because if God took sides, she wouldn't actually be, you know, God.

    But what happens to a country if it loses the thing that supposedly defines it most? If we don't have our bogus "victory," if we don't always win, if we don't have a sense of righteousness so strong and so inflated and so utterly impenetrable that even when it seems like we've lost, we still stumble through some sort of offensive end zone victory dance, well, what's left?

    Here's the link.

  3. Avatar of grumpypilgrim
    grumpypilgrim December 15, 2006 Reply

    Further to Edgar's and Erich's comments, it is indeed stunning to see the extraordinary amount of delusional thinking being practiced by high-ranking Bush Administration officials, and especially by Bush himself. While scores of American troops die every week without discernible progress in Iraq, and while the U.S. Army's chief-of-staff calls for more troops because his existing troops are stretched too thinly. See here.  the Bush Administration's stay-the-course neo-cons continue their nonsense rhetoric about "victory in Iraq."

    The level of denial was highlighted this week when, just days after the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group found serious under-reporting of *bad* news from Iraq, First Lady Laura Bush accused the news media of under-reporting *good* news from Iraq. With such imbecilic thinking in the White House, is it any wonder the nation is mired in a disastrous war based on defective intelligence with no plan for improvement (much less "victory") in sight? If idiots were running the White House, it is hard to identify how current events would be any different from those we see today. No wonder the Founders of America established a division of power in our govermnet, and a separation of church and state: they undoubtedly feared the destruction and chaos that could result from having the country run by ideologues with absolute power. Indeed, what a mess.

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