Bush is Responsible

Events are crescendoing in Iraq, even as Bush/Cheney '04 prop Iyad Allawi tries to convince us that everything is just dandy. It's becoming increasingly clear that there are no real solutions to the insurgency in Iraq, to the lawlessness and the terrorism. But somehow it has not occurred to the American voter (at least, not to the degree it should) that what we have in Iraq, what will be in the decades ahead a scar and a stain as great as Vietnam, is entirely George W. Bush's responsibility.

While there are endless reasons not to vote for Bush this November 2nd, this is the one that is hardest to avoid. George W. Bush authored one of the greatest mistakes in American foreign policy history. Among the allegedly level-headed mainstream press, there remains this vapid and meaningless debate about what Kerry would do to resolve Bush's mess. I can't say it doesn't matter- you'd want a credible and smart person to oversee such a serious policy- but as a debate it's meaningless. Bush's incumbency (and his rampant dishonesty) mean we have to take him at his deeds rather than his words, and his deeds are shameful. Somehow the press persists in regarding Bush's promises of success and democracy and stability just around the corner as something other than the bargaining of an abuser or the delusion and denial of a dry-drunk.

The presidency is a job. The US president is not God's representative on earth, he is a public servant. He is accountable to me, and people like me. When someone performs that job poorly, they deserve to lose that job. LBJ screwed up, and decided not to run for reelection. Nixon screwed up and resigned before he could be fired. I think this president has screwed up just as substantially as those two.

You must know the story by now. Bush compromised our fight in Afghanistan to begin a war against Saddam Hussein. Bush insisted he had WMDs. Bush insisted war was a last resort. In a thousand ways, Bush and his administrated lied and mislead and underplanned and antagonized our allies and made just about any mistake conceivable taking us to war. And what have we gotten?

According to Paul Beat, a security analyst for London-based Control Risks Group, Iraq is the "world's most hostile environment." Mission Accomplished, Mr. President. Over a thousand dead American soldiers. Over ten thousand dead Iraqi civilians. Over seven thousand American soldiers wounded. More than 135,000 American soldiers fighting in the world's most hostile environment. And the uniform consensus of analysts not actively working for Bush's reelection is that the best we can hope for is long term instability and continued brutal violence.

Why did this all happen? There is one word: Bush.

And it personally incenses me, as someone who has always owned up to my mistakes, as someone who's seen manipulative little cowards like Bush create messes get others to take responsibility, that it's even conceivable that Bush might win.