We all know that even presidents make mistakes. Some of them even acknowledge their errors and apologize for them. Not this guy. Bush fancies himself above all that.
He’s been stumbling over cow pies ever since 9/11. Maybe even before that, but his goofs back then didn’t smell like bad mullet. They were made null and void by the lack of crises.
However, with the coming of 9/11. Bush’s mind turned fact into fiction faster than a speeding bullet, and he’s been listening to the little-voice-that-wasn’t-there ever since.
Now, some will say that many of the goofs were not directly of Bush’s doing. To which I say, that’s a copout. If the president is not ultimately responsible for whatever happens on his watch, who is?
For example, on 9/11, Bush was school-room slow at reacting—he kept right on reading to the kids for another 15 minutes—after he was alerted that America was under attack.
Goof One.
Then he and his neo-con cohorts fumbled around, trying to decide who was responsible for this horrendous act of terror. When they finally decided that Osama bin Laden of Afghanistan was the culprit, they attacked Iraq—which made about as much sense as bombing the Vatican.
Goof Two.
Even during the Clinton administration, official U.S. policy toward Iraq was to get rid of the dictator. But Saddam refused to open his country up for inspection, even for the present president. “So I had a choice to make,” said Bush. “Either take the word of a madman or defend America. Given that choice I will defend America.” How thoughtful. But Saddam Hussein never was a threat to America. So Bush was going to defend America from who, or from what?
Goof Three.
The rationale for attacking Iraq was that Saddam Hussein was a dictator—as if that were big news—and we had to get rid of him. So Bush & Co. toppled the despot, then hung a sign on a U.S. ship that read: “Mission Accomplished.”
Goof Four.
But you can’t just go around attacking every head of state you fancy is a dictator, so they dreamed up the idea that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and he was getting ready to drop them on the United States. They’re still looking for the non-existent WMDs.
Goof Five
Bush then assured us that the Iraqis would be so grateful for toppling the dictator that they would kiss and hug our soldiers. Instead, they started slaughtering them; the number of dead is rising toward a thousand, and we quit counting the wounded.
Goof Six.
With little or no supervision, the American guards at Abu Ghraib prison took to torturing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners. The guards said they had authorization from “above” to use “harsh” methods, causing a scandal of international proportions.
Goof Six.
The commission investigating 9/11 stand by their initial findings that al-Qaida had only limited contact with Iraq before the terrorist attacks on 9/11. But strong ties between the two was one of the justifications the Bush administration gave for going to war with Iraq.
Goof Seven.
Bush said his administration was doing everything possible to avert the attacks—we can assume the Patriot Act falls into that category— which he said terrorists are now planning. But how can Bush make such a glaring statement about terrorists attacking us when the intelligence he has received has been dead wrong from day one?
Goof Eight.
Even last Monday, while addressing national security issues, Bush still insisted that there was an “operational” link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, despite the fact that the Senate Committee investigating 9/11 said (again) that they found no evidence that Saddam and Islamic terrorists collaborated to kill Americans.
Goof Nine.
And Goof Ten is a dilly. Right in the middle of the war with Iraq, in which Bush involved us on false information (without bothering to verify it) we now learn that Libya, not Iraq, had at least the makings of weapons of mass destruction. Such as nuclear parts and equipment, and assembled gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
“Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction,” opined Bush, “we were right to go into Iraq.” We? We, Mister Bush? You mean you and your war-hawks, don’t you, sir? You were the only ones who thought we had a right to arbitrarily attack a sovereign nation. And of course you didn’t find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq because they were in Libya, and Moammar Gadhafi was turning them in to end his country’s nuclear weapons program. You remember that deal you guys made with Libya, don’t you, Mr. President?
The bottom line to this whole sordid mess is that while Libya was sitting with all that nuclear capability, you and your cronies took America into a war with Iraq that was not only legally and morally wrong, but totally mistaken as to who our enemy was. Which is the worst goof of all for a president of the United States.
And while our financial resources are being wasted, our military is being drained, and our young soldiers are being gunned down, you still won’t acknowledge the possibility that you have made a terrible and costly mistake.
Sleep well, Mr. President.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”