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| quote: | Originally posted by St_Andrew
bah you need to register, post the article instead if it's not too long  |
better late than never...
Posted on Mon, Apr. 05, 2004
Bush owes candor, not catchphrases
DON HUDSON
Think back to May 1, 2003. Dressed in a flight suit, President Bush flew onto the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in a Navy jet. Before 5,000 troops, he declared major military operations in Iraq over.
A red, white and blue banner was unfurled on deck:
"Mission Accomplished"
That is the defining moment of the Bush presidency. Here's a president that led us into a quagmire, where American civilian and military lives are still jeopardized almost a year later, and he declared the war over.
Not only was it vapid sloganeering (a talent for which this White House has no equal), it was like saying a ballgame is over in the first inning.
Bush is in Charlotte today for a fund-raiser. Local Republicans will pay $2,000 a plate to hear him speak. Instead of a campaign speech, I'd pay to hear candor, to see if he understands the world today better than he did a year ago.
His oversimplifications have cost the world unity.
Back in March 2003, when Bush took us to war, he vowed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, weapons that directly threatened us.
Lacking proof of these weapons, the United Nations asked for more time. Bush didn't wait. The result: anti-U.S., anti-Bush rallies around the world.
Allies united in the war on terrorism have either left us or been hurt themselves. British prime minister Tony Blair is in trouble, and the March bombings in Madrid may have helped overthrow the Spanish government that supported us.
The White House told us the Iraqis would see us as liberators. To some in Iraq, we were. But to others we were (and are) seen as pagan parasites, an occupying army robbing them to feed our oil habit. Some are so angry, last week they killed, burned and hung in effigy four American civilians.
Bush critics said if we stayed with the U.N., if we focused on al-Qaida instead of Iraq, we would present a unified front to terrorists and keep global focus on wiping out terrorism.
We still don't know where Osama bin Laden is. Meanwhile, Iraq costs money. U.S. budget deficits soared from $375 billion last year to a projection of $521 billion this year.
That's where we are today.
Now that we are in Iraq, we need to stay -- but in a less visible role, giving as much power to the U.N. as possible. We need to rebuild our credibility.
Last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted he had gotten bad intelligence when he told the U.N. that Iraq had biological-weapons labs. That's a step in the right direction.
I'd like to think that's a sign Bush will show some of the humility he promised when he was elected. But I fear that it shows how out of step Powell is with the administration.
I'm afraid that sign "Mission Accomplished" shows the true understanding this White House has of world affairs. That it happened on the USS Abraham Lincoln, named after the GOP's greatest president, highlights just how far this party has drifted off its course.
Don Hudson
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| quote: | "Learn, child, to catch a hint through whatever agency it may be given. 'Sermons may be preached through stones."
- Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Letters from the Masters of Wisdom, first series, p. 74, letter 31 |
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