No Trust in Bush (2/13/2007)

President Bush’s poll numbers are dropping like a rock, due mainly to his Iraq war.  A vast majority of the American public, the congress and even the military oppose its escalation.  Bush has lost trust and credibility in his own party, the country and the world.  Yet, he arrogantly says he will stay the course, even if only  wife Laura and dog Barney support him. Whatever happened to a government of “we the people”?  Does the decider sound like a dictator?

Tragically, the Bush people plotted the Iraq war to increase their political power.  Frank Rich’s book, “The Greatest Story Ever Sold,” tracks the duplicity-- from the lies in Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech, through the ever-changing reasons for war (from WMDs to spreading liberty), to its mismanagement and failures.  Rich documents how two key viewpoints in the White House recklessly fed each other to create this endless war.  First, neocons Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Scooter Libby had long pushed their controversial manifesto of unilateral American military power. They saw Iraq as a place to jump-start realignment of the Middle East.  Second, the 2002 election was looming, and Bush had to distract Americans from his failure to capture Osama bin Laden. Political strategist Karl Rove saw an Iraq war as a grand new showy, successful battle, which Rich aptly describes as “political Viagra needed for an election year.” Bush and Rove wanted the war to secure partisan power.   Cheney and Libby wanted it for ideology.  The facts and intelligence on Iraq didn’t fit their schemes, so, to sell the war, they falsely linked Iraq to the 9/11 attacks and claimed Iraq had WMDs.

But as their lies are exposed, opposition grows, even from loyal Republicans.  William Buckley Jr. says that if he knew then what he knows now, he would have opposed the war.  George Will says that all three components of the axis of evil-- Iraq, Iran, and North Korea-- are more dangerous now than they were when Bush’s speechwriter coined that phrase in 2002. Newt Gingrich says, “It was an enormous mistake for us to try to occupy that country after June of 2003.  We have to pull back.”  Other conservatives, including columnist Charles Krauthammer, Hudson Institute’s General William Odom, former National Review editor Rod Dreher, and Republican speechwriter Peggy Noonan, now admit they see little success for Bush’s war and question the surge. And, each day more Republican politicians scramble to distance themselves from Bush.

Ironically, in the 2000 debate with Al Gore, Bush said, , “I don’t think our troops ought to be used for what’s called nation building.  I’m worried about an opponent who uses nation building and the military in the same sentence.”   And on February 12, 2003, a month before the war, then Secretary of State Rumsfeld said, “Well intentioned foreigners who practice nation building come in with international solutions to local problems and create a dependency that produces unintended adverse side effects.  A long-term foreign presence in a country can be unnatural, which is why the U.S. should leave as soon as possible should it go to war in Iraq.” 

 Bush ran on a lie, continues to lie, and now hints at war with Iran! How much more blood will be spilled? How many billions squandered?  Most Americans distrust Bush.  How can we stop this imperialistic presidency? Is impeachment the answer?

- Judith Kohler

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