George Bush’s Iraq Obsession: America Held Hostage
by Pamela LeaveyBrent Budowsky has a post today on The Hill’s Pundits Blog about Bush’s obsession with Iraq. It’s a good read. Here’s a few quips:
On Iraq, George Bush is trapped in his own private Guantanamo, a detainee of his personal and uncontrollable obsession about this war, no matter what the truth, no matter what the cost, no matter what the consequences.
At every single step of the way towards this catastrophe, the Senate Republicans marched in lockstep, at first blinded by their power in controlling the Senate, and then blinded by their fear of standing up to the man most of them know is deadly wrong, about this deadly war.
On Iraq, George Bush’s vision is that America should be held hostage to whatever darkness governs his spirit on this war that should never have been fought.
Democrats never mattered in the war world of George W. Bush. He is the only American president in our history who used war itself as a partisan political weapon rather than an effort behind which our country could rally.In George Bush’s world of war, he was never the president of the United States, he was the decider, the commander guy, the child who said bring ‘em on.
George Bush was the little man in search of total power, treating war not as a higher purpose to win with unity, but as a lower political art form to demean Americans he treats as enemies.
No American President, not even Nixon at his worst, has ever demeaned, defamed and dishonored the office once held by George Washington in this manner.
War was treated by George W. Bush not as a mean to unite the nation, to win the war, but as a means to divide the nation, to win his quest for unlimited power.
George Bush was never the president of the whole American people. He was never the president of Democrats or independents. He was never even the president of Republicans in the Senate, whose advice he repeatedly ignored, whose counsel he treated with total contempt.
I often wonder about people with obsessions and Bush really is a classic example with his obsession on Iraq. He’s also a classic control freak, in my opinion.
At this point Bush is still not willing to let go of his Iraq obsession but at least in recent weeks some Republicans in the Senate have shown a willingness to break free from his lock hold. As Budowsky points out:
If the Senate Republicans submit yet again to what they know is deadly wrong, they will be standing alone, with George W. Bush, against the entire free world, against their own private conscience, and they will suffer an epic landslide defeat in 2008 and will be convicted forever in the high court of history.
Public opinion on Iraq is at an all time low. It really is time for the Senate GOP to loosen Georgie’s grip on Iraq.
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Look around and it seems like where we are with respect to Iraq is exactly where someone wanted us to be, and wants us to stay. Interestingly, there is a very real possibility that it may not have been GWB, and that others guided him to a place not necessarily of his choosing, and, consequently, not of his present understanding.
Or he may even be 100% loving it, for whatever reason, and he’s mentally flipping the bird to the whole world. Follow the money and the usual suspects are all sittin high on the hog, and that may not be coincidence.
Having served in Vietnam with the 25th Infantry Division, the parallels between that war and Iraq are obvious. Both Nixon and Johnson were obsessed with the war. The war was so unpopular at home, that LBJ refused to seek a second term. The public outcry against the war went unheard. National Guard troops were sent to Kent State College in Ohio, in response to a campus anti-war protest. Four war protestors were killed and others seriously injuried. Then, like now, those who opposed the war were portrayed by the executive branch as being unpatriotic. Desent equated with treason. Both Johnson and Nixon assurred a skeptical electorate that there, “was a light at the end of the tunnel.” However there wasn’t. President Bush (aka “The Decider”) assures us that “the surge” is working and to, “stay the course.” We are told that,As Iraqui’s stand up, American’s will stand down.” However the Iraqi military shows no indication or interest in “standing up.” Finally in 1975 the Vietnam War ended with the evacuation of our U.S. embassy in Saigon. Even in defeat, Nixon distorted the truth by saying we had achieved, “peace with honor.” We had’nt. We had simply been defeated!! That war, like this one, was largely political. The Generals were not allowed to fight the war as they wanted. Instead of being fought on the battlefield, the Generals hands were tied by Commander’s In Chief unwilling to give them free rein. The body counts of killed North Vietnameese and Viet-Cong were regularly inflated, to give those on the home front the false impression that we were winning. I know this to be true, as I served with the Military Intelligence Corps. After 10 years of false claims, bad judgement, and miss-management we were left only with a granite wall in Washington with the names of 58,000 heroes, who unfortunately died in vain!
If Republican Senators are not convinced to provide the neccessary votes (sixty) to over-ride King George’s veto, they will have blood on their hands and should be voted out of office. We obviously have learned nothing from the Vietnam fiasco. The famous quote goes that, “those who don’t learn by their mistakes are bound to repeat them.” It would also seem that the noted lyric of a 70′s hit Peter, Paul, and Mary song would again be appropriate, “Where have all the young men gone? Long time passing. Where have all the young men gone, long time ago? The answer my friend in blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.