President Bush is (Very) Down: But Is He Out for the Count?

President Bush is broken man.  It pains me to say it: He is a defeated man.  You can see it in his unseemly choice to take a five-week vacation with a war on; his reluctance to terminate his vacation early to cope with the Hurricane Katrina disaster (and I am no Katrina Bush-basher); his general aloofness and withdrawal from the American people; and – most tragic of all—his retreat from his own vision, his own doctrine, his own quest, to lead America in a worldwide battle against terrorism.  In fact, he has (pathetically) scaled down his noble Crusade to take it to the terrorists to a “let’s-teach-the-Iraqis-about-democracy” effort in Iraq.  

I have had some of these thoughts on my own, but they have been influenced tremendously by this hard-hitting article by Steven M. Warshawsky*, entitled, “The Bush Doctrine, R.I.P.”  (Hat tip: realclearpolitics.)

Please read Warshawsky’s piece: If you are a fan of the idea of going to war against terrorists, it will break your heart, if not demoralize you.  After all, one who opposes terrorists can turn to the Bible for support.

The entire Bush conundrum makes me think of nothing so much as our LORD’s parable in Luke 14, where he warns His disciples to count the cost of being one his followers – using as one of his examples a king who decides to make war, only to sue for peace before the fighting even starts.

Sadly, as Michael Savage has said on his talk show (to which I am listening while typing this):  Bush has proven to be a disappointingly WEAK leader.  (Savage does not say this gleefully, as he genuinely admires many of GWB’s personal qualities.)

Recently, a poster on the comments section of little green footballs suggested (with some merit, I believe) that the now at sea Junior Bush – having jettisoned his former neo-Conservative advisors – has pitifully defaulted the direction of his current foreign policy to his father and his associates, including James Baker.

Hurricane Katrina was the final cruel blow for President Bush – almost as though he was being kicked while he was down.  He is gone; he is virtually terminated.  He is a cipher.  He is an empty shell.  

And that is NOT a good thing.  Surely, it would be wickedness to rejoice in the President’s current sad state of affairs.

It is not morning in America.

However, I will not pretend to pronounce the final word this early in the game.  I pray that another Scripture will live itself out in President Bush over the next three years: Proverbs 24:16, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.”

*Warshawsky writes for The American Thinker.