Another ambulance night. It's 12:30 and we haven't gone out yet, so my driver went to bed. We just finished watching John Stewart chew up John McCain - kinda sad, actually. But I give McCain credit for going on the show... Then the thought came to my mind - President Bush is doing a great job for Osama bin Laden, wherever he is.
The threat America faces from radical Islamic terrorists is no joke. Those guys really do hate us, and they will do anything they can to destroy America's power in the world. That's not my opinion. That's what they say, and they mean it. Plenty of them have died already trying to accomplish that very tough job, and many more probably will. They are a dedicated enemy and we would be extremely foolish to think otherwise. But are we going about dealing with them in an appropriate way? I think not. In fact, President Bush seems to be doing a great job for Osama bin Laden.
The terrorists have an uphill battle on their hands. They have no army to speak of, but they do have a lot of dispersed fighters with fairly simple weapons. They have a very hard time staying hidden, and they have a hard time getting into our country. What they really need is a lot of help to weaken America, and that is what they are getting from our government.
The Iraq war - a war of our choice - is weakening our armed forces and depleting our treasure. It is sapping our will because it is unwinnable. Who is going to surrender? The guerilla war will go on indefinitely in Iraq. How long should we accept this slow war of attrition? Are we getting our money's worth? No way. Osama is happy as a clam, and I'm sure he feels we should stay there as long as possible. "Thank you, President Bush", he is saying. "I can mess things up in Iraq faster than you can ever put it back together, and the Iraqi factions are giving me all the help I'll ever need". Great outcome for Osama and his bunch of "dead-enders".
Meanwhile, back on the home front, the administration is now getting tied up in the aftermath of its own lies. No weapons of mass destruction. No political firings. No corruption. No outing a CIA agent. No attempts to use government resources for politial purposes. No torture. The administration and congress are tied in knots, spending all their time going after each other. This leaves no time to focus on America's real problems, so they just get worse out of neglect. Don't tell me that failing to deal with our soon-to-be-bankrupt entitlement programs won't dramatically weaken our country, for example. Osama is happy.
So that's the Bush paradox. He's right about the terrorist threat, wrong about what to do about it. He's weakened our defenses, failed to prepare us for the future, splintered our political process, and given us plenty of reason to distrust government just at the time when we really need to be confident in what our leaders tell us. Osama is happy. Bush seems oblivious. History will judge him harshly.
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2 comments:
"This leaves no time to focus on America's real problems, so they just get worse out of neglect."
Are the days in Washington 5 minutes long?
No.
There's time to do real business and in fact some of it is getting done.
It's just that the things not getting done are causing so much trouble.
We can argue and get the nations business done, fight an unjust "war" AND Impeach Cheney and the rest of these monsters.
In short we can save the world - if we just try.
This is worrisome. Bush came into office seeming bent on disproving every point Clinton had made. He followed from 9-11 intent on disproving every point Osama has made. But there are times when even your biggest enemy is right. I just hope that the Democrats eager to undo Bush's bad policy don't feel obligated to do everything backwards from him, no matter how appealing that may seem.
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