Bush Begins to Twist the Knife

Bush Begins to Twist the Knife

Having already stabbed America, its military members, and the Republican Party in the back, via his  absurd Federal overspending, his base closures, his half-hearted war effort in Iraq, and his wink-and-nod approval of massive and out-of-control illegal immigration, President Bush is now beginning to TURN the knife through his new “cut-and-run-slowly” tack on Iraq.  

While  I seldom agree with liberal writers like Fred Kaplan, I have to give credit where credit is due:  Bush IS being cynical about Iraq, as well as about illegal immigration.

In fact, it is getting harder and harder to defend ANYTHING Bush does other than his (remarkably serendipitous) judicial appointments.

As the father of a son in Iraq, I greatly and deeply resent President Bush’s having started the war in Iraq and having – after a stellar initial invasion – waged a lackluster, aimless campaign in Iraq for the past two years during which over 2000 men have died.  

However, for Bush now – even while telling people why we must NOT immediately leave Iraq – to plan an exit in a not-so-subtle way for his own political convenience simply makes me sick.

I love Kaplan’s point that, while the Bush Administration (rightly) roasted Congressman Murtha (D-PA) for advocating an immediate exit from Iraq, it is now feverishly planning to cut troop levels in Iraq and turn more and more military responsibility over to an unproven and unseasoned Iraqi army.

As much as I disagree with Murtha’s “cut-and-run” speech, I give the man high marks for honesty – a virtue that seems to be increasingly foreign to the Bush Administration.

If there is one thing that Bush has clearly lacked during his one-and-a-half dismal terms, it is a “killer instinct” towards his true political enemies:  He has boosted Federal Education spending for Ted Kennedy; gone light on the odious Sandy Berger despite his theft of classified documents; socialized intimately with the dour and sinister (deceased) King of Saudi Arabia; become best of chums with the vile Bill Clinton; has increased Federal spending at a rate that would give FDR sexual arousal; and has nurtured the feckless, soulless, and gutless Ronald Dumbsfeld in his can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees post-invasion non-strategy in Iraq.

But, above all, Bush could never muster the cojones to take the handcuffs off our boys in Iraq and permit them to do the kind of damage to the enemy that they are not only trained and equipped to do, but that they WANT to do.  In short, Bush – in the midst of his annual hosting of White House Ramadan parties – could never seem to focus a laser-intensity concentrated purpose to destroy the Islamofascist enemy that he has, until his recent nosedive in the polls, arrogantly even declined to name.

So, now that President Bush sees the poll numbers dropping, he says:  “We must not immediately cut-and-run in Iraq, for to do so would be tragic for America.  (Rather, we must cut-and-run in stages!)”

Indeed, President Bush – to my thinking – seems deadly serious about only one thing: Making sure that he will be regarded by history as a President who, though given a rare chance to attain greatness – strove doggedly to maintain mediocrity as his daily rule.

I hope the American fighting man realizes that he has – yet once again – been hung out to dry by his “leaders.”

Truly, our fighting men are of such noble character that our leaders (in both parties) should be ashamed of themselves to use and abuse them as they do.  No matter how much we are disappointed by our leaders, at least we can still point to our fighting men with pride – men who continue to be highly motivated to finish the job in Iraq that no one inside the Washington Beltway has the stomach to continue for another two years.