Bush Believes History Will Vindicate Him
The White House is in disarray. In the meantime, Republicans who supported the war in Iraq are either shaking their heads or urging more war but there are very few people who believe Bush has done a fine job. And yet, Bush's disconnect from reality continues. Thomas M. DeFrank of the New York Daily News says the president still thinks history will vindicate his foreign policy:
This is from a guy who deludes himself into believing he's a self-made man and that he became president on his own merits without his daddy's help (in the last week, there's been speculation that the senior Bush had originally intended Jeb Bush to become president).
This isn't the first time that Bush has declared that history will vindicate him. But Bush doesn't bother to say what it is that will be vindicated. President Bush has never been able to articulate exactly why we're in Iraq and most of the reasons he has offered have fallen by the wayside. The war on terror? WMDs? Democracy? Oil? Regime change? Bush now resorts to vague generalities about winning and victory without saying, as an example, what it is we'll win if we ever get there.
Think of it: George W. Bush believes history will vindicate him which means history will have to explain why we're in Iraq, something the president is unable do.
Other than wishful thinking, what evidence does Bush have that he will be vindicated? If Bush had shown competence in other areas of his presidency, that might be evidence that maybe he knows what he's talking about. If he had a record of accomplishing things like James Baker, maybe his word would have more weight than a former Secretary of State who has worked for four presidents. What has Bush accomplished in six years? Conservatives point to Bush's tax cuts but most of those tax cuts are unpaid for and went to the wealthiest Americans, people, in fact, who didn't need the tax cuts; the consequence is a deficit as far as the eye can see. In domestic policy, Bush has accomplished very little and he will always be remembered as the president who sat on his hands during Hurricane Katrina, perhaps the biggest natural disaster in our nation's history. In foreign policy, the United States is held in low esteem and we have blown areas of foreign policy that involve North Korea, Pakistan and potentially, due to gross neglect, Afghanistan. Thanks to Bush,our influence in Russia and China has waned.
When Bush isn't talking about winning, he increasingly seems to be resorting to fancy verbal footwork to explain more or less that we're in Iraq to clean up the mess he made. For me, after you distil everything that was said, that's what the report by the Iraq Study Group says but in plainer language. Cleaning up the mess in Iraq is not an adequate solution, but it's a major step towards coming to grips with reality.
In 72 hours last week, a bipartisan commission harshly repudiated Bush's Iraq policy. Incoming Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told senators the U.S. isn't winning the war. Then a British journalist snarkily asked at a White House press conference if Bush weren't "in denial" about Iraq.
For good measure, a new poll found only 27% of Americans back his Iraq policy, a new low. And a moderate GOP senator termed the policy "absurd" and possibly criminal.
"He'll be fine but he can't be doing very good," said a well-placed Bush source who talks with the President often. "It's been a terrible year, and it keeps getting worse."
Yet Bush is described by another recent visitor as still resolutely defiant, convinced history will ultimately vindicate him.
"I'll be dead when they get it right," he said during an Oval Office meeting last week.
This is from a guy who deludes himself into believing he's a self-made man and that he became president on his own merits without his daddy's help (in the last week, there's been speculation that the senior Bush had originally intended Jeb Bush to become president).
This isn't the first time that Bush has declared that history will vindicate him. But Bush doesn't bother to say what it is that will be vindicated. President Bush has never been able to articulate exactly why we're in Iraq and most of the reasons he has offered have fallen by the wayside. The war on terror? WMDs? Democracy? Oil? Regime change? Bush now resorts to vague generalities about winning and victory without saying, as an example, what it is we'll win if we ever get there.
Think of it: George W. Bush believes history will vindicate him which means history will have to explain why we're in Iraq, something the president is unable do.
Other than wishful thinking, what evidence does Bush have that he will be vindicated? If Bush had shown competence in other areas of his presidency, that might be evidence that maybe he knows what he's talking about. If he had a record of accomplishing things like James Baker, maybe his word would have more weight than a former Secretary of State who has worked for four presidents. What has Bush accomplished in six years? Conservatives point to Bush's tax cuts but most of those tax cuts are unpaid for and went to the wealthiest Americans, people, in fact, who didn't need the tax cuts; the consequence is a deficit as far as the eye can see. In domestic policy, Bush has accomplished very little and he will always be remembered as the president who sat on his hands during Hurricane Katrina, perhaps the biggest natural disaster in our nation's history. In foreign policy, the United States is held in low esteem and we have blown areas of foreign policy that involve North Korea, Pakistan and potentially, due to gross neglect, Afghanistan. Thanks to Bush,our influence in Russia and China has waned.
When Bush isn't talking about winning, he increasingly seems to be resorting to fancy verbal footwork to explain more or less that we're in Iraq to clean up the mess he made. For me, after you distil everything that was said, that's what the report by the Iraq Study Group says but in plainer language. Cleaning up the mess in Iraq is not an adequate solution, but it's a major step towards coming to grips with reality.
Labels: Bush, Iraq Study Group
posted by Craig at 4:34 PM
2 Comments:
Hello Craig,
A small village in Texas is missing an idiot and unfortunately we found him masquerading as the president. What a fine pickle the world is in as the result of a bunch of careless villagers!
We are witnessing the last throes of so-called representative democracy...
Just how wise is it for billions of souls to to be at the mercy of a proven idiot just because those with the most money and least scruples put him in power? GW Bush and the greedy scoundrels that surround him are stunning evidence of the utter folly and failures of government driven by money, religion, and politics.
It was clear to me that GHW (papa) Bush was crying recently because he's suffering from the stress of realizing that the debacles caused by his son are ultimately traced to the Bush family's aristocratic ambitions. In other words, the old man and his cabal cronies are as much to blame for Iraq and other evils as the clueless son they foisted upon the world stage. That is why family consigliere James Baker and smoking man Eagleburger were called in to set the stage for little W's demise. Since consigliere Baker made sure little W became president, I think he owes us all a very big favor by fixing his earlier horrendous mistake, as soon as possible.
Royalty, aristocracy, and plutocracy always were and always will be bad ideas and we have been forced to suffer through yet more proof of this. Do you think GW's feelings are more important than the wealth and power of the empire? We're now witnessing the praetorian guard fulfilling their most sacred duty; saving the empire from an insane emperor.
Unfortunately for them, it's too little too late.
Here is Wisdom...
"Other than wishful thinking, what evidence does Bush have that he will be vindicated?"
You expect evidence? Evidence? From people who claim to create their own reality?
Bush doesn't need evidence, just a cover story people can be conned into believing, more or less. Preferably, a cover story that can be distilled down to a two- to four-word catch phrase the right-wing noise machine can drill into the public's consciousness until it becomes popular wisdom.
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