Hard for me to believe that someone actually believes the following opinions I read in the New Haven Register’s letters to the editor (Tuesday, June 19, 2007, Serge G. Mihaly Jr., Hamden) Each of the four paragraphs heads a section of my commentary.
“With the anti-President Bush letters and articles filling newspapers, I want to express my support of Bush. I consider the man honorable and determined in his steadfast defense of our nation.”
Bush has never demonstrated that he is honorable. The record of his administration shows just the opposite. He puts cronies and “friends” in positions that allow them to make decisions that affect all of us. Through them he has raped the land, destroyed our good name in the world, wasted a trillion dollar surplus and put us in debt for decades to come, suppressed government experts on global warming, turned our Justice Department into a Republican Party operation, allowed the city of New Orleans to wallow for years in misery, tortured prisoners in secret prisons in foreign countries, denied hundreds of men the benefit of all human rights for years, lied to Congress and us about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and started a war whose aims changed with the times and politics of the moment. How honorable.
“He appears to not use public opinion to make decisions, but rather relies on the information before him and his own judgement. Whether you agree with him, you must respect the president for sticking by his decisions.”
Bush’s every move is scripted to influence public opinion (think klieg lights in New Orleans) and if you look at what he has said over the past six years you will find contradictions which accommodate the prevailing political climate. There is no reason in the world to respect someone who sticks to his decisions if those are based on lies and propaganda or produce conduct which is against the law (Abu Graib, anyone?). There is much evidence that supports the conclusion that Bush’s decisions change with the public mood. The only ‘decision’ he has consistently supported is to reduce taxes for very wealthy individuals and corporations even in the face of putting the Federal Government in serious debt. What judgement he has.
“How easy would it be for him to prematurely declare victory and pull out of Iraq? But, he knows and so do others that this war on terror has only just started, an unpleasant reality made more real by the recent discovery of a plot to kill soldiers here.”
Bush declared victory in Iraq about as prematurely as you can get “on May 1, 2003 George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in Navy One, a Lockheed S-3 Viking, wearing a flight suit. A few hours later he gave a speech announcing the end of major combat operations in the Iraq War. Clearly visible in the background was a banner stating “Mission Accomplished.” In Bush’s own words,
“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. (Applause.) And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.
“In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment — yet, it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage, your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other, made this day possible. Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free. (Applause.)”
And then there were the outright lies. Again, in Bush’s own words,
“The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We’ve removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more. (Applause.)”
Iraq was never an ally of al Qaeda (as in NEVER). It never financed terrorists and never had weapons of mass destruction to supply to anyone.
“We needed a leader on Sept. 11 who would stand up strongly against a deadly enemy, and we got one. Now we want to pretend we never needed one. How convenient”
The “leader who stood up strongly against a deadly enemy” spent most of the day on Sept. 11, 2001 running and hiding. Yes he did. I remember watching the news broadcasts and waiting for some word from our ‘leaders’ but all I heard were comments by Clinton Administration officials who were brought in because NO ONE from the Bush Administration was talking. The only person in the Administration who was visible was Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who to his credit went outside to help those who were dealing with the disaster at the Pentagon.
Our “leader” high-tailed it out of Florida under a complete blackout that lasted until he turned up at a nuclear bomb shelter in Colorado in the afternoon. There he went underground. The White House propaganda machine released a rumor that Air Force One was threatened by enemies of undisclosed type. It was allowed to die since its job had been done - to insert this fake item into the peripheral memory of a gullible public. A day or so later the White House released a picture of Bush in Air Force One “on the phone with V.P. Cheney” and began the myth that Bush was in charge from the get-go. The same ‘looking out the window of Air Force One’ stunt was used after Hurricane Katrina. It didn’t work.
We have never been told what V.P. Cheney was doing on 9/11. Yes, he was in another bunker in Washington, DC but what was he doing besides allegedly talking to Bush (eight hours after the attack, at least). After all, he was the one Bush appointed (that January) to take charge of anti-terrorism planning. He was head of the Security Committee that never met, by the bye.
We needed and still need leadership not only against terrorism but to rally our nation to make the world a better place. Bush is not and never has been that person.