‘I said Bush was a great man; I was wrong’
By Adam Holmberg
NEW PERSPECTIVES, IV Leader Columnist, Jan. 30, 2003
The United States is maneuvering to start an ugly, costly, bloody war in Iraq. For the first time since the mid-1980s, we are risking a nuclear war with a communist nation over what amounts to a geopolitical pissing contest. George Orwell would be wagging his finger because Big Brother is finally watching, and we’re opening up some government real estate in California if you’re an Arab and illegal. Welcome to the Year of Our Lord (and the Cowboy from Texas would like to remind you it is our Lord) 2003.
I wouldn’t call 2002 a very good year. The economy is in the toilet, with plenty of qualified people begging for work, trying to get by. Men who we’ve trusted and admired, such as Colin Powell, have proven themselves good, loyal soldiers to an administration who’s reminded us that everyone wants to be American and democratic, even if they don’t quite know it yet. President Bush and co-President Cheney have deemed Iraq a threat to our national security, even though they could barely lob a nuclear weapon (which they don’t have) on Saddam Hussein’s grandma’s house. Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden quakes in fear in his cave that someday the Cowboy will come after him (maybe he could send O.J. Simpson, after he finds the “real killer” of course).
One footnote of the year 2002 was former President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Cuba. Carter puts Colin Powell to shame – while Powell was a statesman with strong convictions, he serves now as a more moderate mouthpiece for Bush and Cheney’s latest schemes. Behind the scenes Powell might not agree, but you don’t see him offering any alternatives or making his views known to the public. Even when he has offered mediation of late, I don’t see Powell as having any real effect on the core issues of anything he supposedly stands for.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter went down to Cuba of his own accord as a private citizen concerned with such quaint notions such as human rights and equality. After meeting with Fidel Castro, certainly a favorite of good Republicans everywhere, Carter is allowed to get on Cuba’s official public radio and say anything he wants.
Hell, the fact that Carter was even allowed into the country should say something, but when Castro finally – after many, many years of “punishment” for overthrowing the great humanitarian that was Flugencio Batista – agreed to compromise with the United States, Bush took a hard line and basically told Carter to butt out.
Would Castro have tried to gain advantage from a deal with the United States? Of course. Would the Cowboy be any more pure of heart? I think not.
I am realistic enough to recognize that not all the woes currently experienced by the United States come from George W. Bush or even his administration. The trouble is, many of them do and even more of them could be prevented by alternate action on his part. I do not believe the goal of the government of the United States has ever been anything purer than spreading freedom through democracy to the people of the world, and I still believe that this is the greatest country in the world, mostly because I can put in print that Al Gore should be president (mostly because he won the election) and maybe we wouldn’t be in such a bloody mess, and no men with guns will come to my house and lock me up.
Trouble is, our leadership has failed us. Perhaps the administration has done all it can for the economy, but it wouldn’t be in such a mess if Bush hadn’t mishandled it in the first place. Sept. 11 is horrible, but it was only accelerant on a fire that was burning the future of the American people to cinders. Now Bush is preparing to sell the future itself down the river so his drinking buddies can mine for oil in Alaska. “He’s selling our future?” you might ask. Damned right, he is – after all, who cares about saving the world if it’s going to choke and die in twenty or thirty years anyway? But, our leadership fails us in a more basic way too.
Those of us who have any idealism left – a group that does not include this writer – talk about “saving the world” through this cause or that. That’s the magic bullet theory, which assumes we just solve a few problems and then everyone will join hands and sing “We Are The World.” I prescribe to a different theory: that to change the world, one has to change the people in it. To paraphrase Frank Herbert, to stop people from killing each other you don’t build bigger bombs. Instead, you have to change the culture in such a way that it will simply not occur to people to ram airplanes into buildings.Of course, from this comes the problem that there are people whose minds we can’t change in time – people like the Afghanis and the members of al Qaeda who have been programmed for generations to hate us. In that case it’s kill or be killed. But I will also argue that they’re the exception to the rule.
I said Bush was a great man. I was wrong. Bush is a man in the grip of mediocrity who, despite being somewhat well-meaning, puts personal feelings before the protection of his nation. He would have Americans come home from Iraq in body bags because “Saddam tried to kill my dad.” He would make gestures and posture with North Korea with no regard to the South Koreans or Americans stationed across the DMZ because he wants justification to make war with half the world. He stood by as Ariel Sharon murdered innocent Palestinians in the pursuit of “justice” yet will not support Russia in asserting a claim on its sovereign territory in Chechnya.
When you think of supporting President Bush or his administration, remember that America is painted by the same brush as Bush by the international community. Remember that planes are flown into our buildings because we are seen as supporting Bush’s thirst for blood and oil. Remember that George W. Bush refuses to pursue the people who flew those planes into those buildings Sept. 11, 2001, yet is willing to sacrifice us in a war against a man who we have no business with.
Remember that we are the greatest country in the world because we are many voices demanding justice and security, not one demanding blood.