Bush Wants to Escalate His "Legacy" War ~ Surprise!

Graduate-level lessons in war for boys who barely did



Music to conduct war by, courtesy John Hughes: http://www.johnhughes.ca/index2.html *



The more I contemplate what it must be like to be President, the more I want to grow up (using the term loosely) to be an overprivileged immature brat-boy who thinks nothing of wrecking one country & bankrupting another in pursuit of--what, exactly? -- Americans are asking themselves.

We can only think that the famously inarticulate & logically imprecise George casts it to himself as the "legacy" he so famously jabbers about --at the same time decreeing that his presidential papers be squirreled away & hidden from the public he governs 'til such time that you & I everybody else reading this in the present day will have been long gone & rotting in our graves. So let's us, his contemporaries, remark on his performance while we're still here.

Once again, George presents the American public with a Hobb's choice--the seeming offer of a free choice where none exists, really. The country he unilaterally invaded & justified by lying to us, don't forget, had not a thing to do with 911, & has since descended into chaos as a result of Rumsfeld's & others' fantasies of fast strikes by light forces & mismanagement such that Iraq has become terrorist-training-camp central.

So, now what do we do, George? Easy! Escalate, he says. Iraq, Somalia, where else? The GWAT promises to be never-ending, especially now that diplomatic relations with Islamic moderates is completely off the table, & we've offended everyone abroad with our ersatz concentration camps & sacrificed our own civil liberties at home.

I have a suggestion for the Democrats: if you go along with this "new" plan, which is not really "new" at all (& it appears that you have no real choice), extract some concessions & reverse the tide. Either George provides fair trials for detainees or shuts Gitmo down; give us Americans our civil rights back, no ifs ands or buts about it. There have always been legal means in place to monitor enemies--George was just too lazy & power-hungry to observe them. Enough with the bullshit & propaganda already. And insist on diplomatic relations.

It is a very sad measure of just how far backwards the GOP has managed to propel us in time with their Brave New World propaganda about this war when an American general's "zen" plan for stabilizing Iraq is heralded as a bold new idea. It should have been in place many billions of dollars & American & civilian lives ago. (Washington Post article, title bar).

But there again--it is a hallmark of the excessively immature to think that everything that happens in their lives is somehow new & unprecedented--because it's happening only to them, doncha know. Americans have always been famous for the short-attention span approach to world history, & very susceptible to the idea that they're somehow the exceptions to every rule. Civilizations grow & die, & others have learned before us that allowing boy-kings to run rampant without adult supervision can be very dangerous indeed.

Unfortunately, the drastic neocon "revolution" has proven to be just the step back into the dark ages that America didn't need.

Need I add that I don't agree with Newt Gingrich on much of anything, but especially this, from "Meet the Press" last week:

"This can't be Bush's war" -- [meaning] it has to be the country's. "

Au contraire, Newt. It is Bush & the neocons' war, entered into, we dare speculate, with great calculation for purposes bearing no relation in truth to the lies we were fed.

He who lies & cries wolf will inevitably meet his consequences, & that may be the true legacy of the Neocon Revolution. Next time, choose a grownup as a Presidential candidate who recognizes that the delaration of war in the modern world is by definition a declaration of political failure. George, in contrast, seemed unable to resist the urge to play "wartime President," & his friends unable to forego the attraction of wartime profiteering.

If the decent citizens of America elect to bail you guys out & rescue you from your reckless adventures, you can be sure there will be there will be consequences to that, too.

*More about John Hughes: the music to kick warmonger ass by is from a very talented friend & neighbor to the North. A chart-topper on Neil Young's antiwar site, it's been circulating virally since last summer & has earned John an invitation to Rome to play at Neil's birthday party, as well as upcoming events. Congrats, John!