It was apt that the Democrats sent Bush the war funding bill on this, the fourth anniversary of his over-eager victory march and press opportunity. And, sadly, equally apt that he would veto it.
There's no great psychological analysis to be done here folks, the motive is simple: in football terms, our President is running out the clock. To watch troops leave Iraq sans "Mission Accomplished" would be for the man to admit defeat, to admit that the advice of his star-headed neocons was wrong, and to admit that the biggest decision of his presidency was the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history. He simply won't let himself be saddled with that sort of legacy.
Instead he'll do what they often do, pawn it of on the next guy. A word of advice: observe what an incoming president inherits. Does he enter office with a surplus, or with a deficit? With America respected in most of the world or hated? Pay attention, and remember who did what. It'll help you make sense of things in the long run, because there's an amazing amount of people with pretty crappy memories, and many are part-time pundits.
Some in Washington has gotten the message of reality, even as they run the spin cycle full tilt on the public. A translation: when a Republican senator utters the words "mistakes were made" regarding this war, it's code for "we fucked up royally, so royally in fact that even though it's our policy to never, never admit mistakes, there's simply no hiding it"—but even then the very prose deflects blame onto some unknown third party. Not "I was wrong" not "Bush was wrong" but simply acknowledging the horrendous mistakes in the barest of terms, as if they occcured in a vacuum. Nice try though. If things had gone the way they planned and expected, they'd be crowing off the rooftops, not palming of lame apologies masked as acknowledgments of a war gone poorly.
Being a patriot is tough. There are sadly those who will attempt to wrap that flag around your eyes and stuff it in your ears to block out reality. But true patriots do more than mouthe the words. They worry about the care the troops receive after they arrive home wounded (physically and otherwise), they don't dishonor our nation's heritage, and they think before they act because all actions have consequences. I fear this country will be paying the cost of the "Mission Accomplished" for years and years to come.
I hope and pray we can bring home all our troops safely, and soon.
2 comments:
William Safire refers to the verb tense used in the phrase "Mistakes were made" as the past exonerative. I've heard it come from pols on both sides of the aisle, and it makes me angry and cynical as a voter who deplores our declining moral authority in the community of nations. There are too many important issues that Bush & Co. have refused to be reasonable about, from the environment to the tax system, and too many American and Iraqi lives at stake, for him to take a knee until the 44th president is sworn in.
The good and amusing thing is that, as the real electioneering for '08 kicks in, just around the time when Republican hopefuls would ordinarily lust after sharing the podium with the incumbent, Bush's appearance at these events very well might be as welcome as the emergence, from beneath a Thanksgiving turkey, of a thumb-sized roach.
A fine, well-reasoned, and passionate piece, R.
Thanks Schizo.
James Carville said it best about a week ago -- he said just watch how many Democrats mention Bush at their debate, and then watch just how many republicans (don't) mention Bush at theirs...
A pity people are dying while the stalling goes on.
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