President Bush's "equanimity" in recent weeks seems similar to his bland confidence at the many points where he plowed ahead, confident of his "rightness" in the face of a world full of people waving their hands and pointing toward the open manhole he was preparing to step confidently into. With the rest of our nation in tow.
Whether President Bush will ever experience any substantive rehabilitation in his lifetime, or perhaps in a half century or more in the future, is by definition something that we, cannot yet know. One is certainly free to predict that such a miracle will happen, but in my opinion it has roughly the same chances of success as our being greeted in Iraq by crowds throwing flowers and signing songs of praise, something the British should have known was highly unlikely from their botched 1920s adventure in nation-building and village-bombing there, shortly after the formation of the modern state of Iraq. Taking the Brits with us as our primary ally must have given many Iraqis pause, as they recalled Churchill's use of mustard gas and retaliatory bombings. Oh, sorry, had you not acquainted yourself with the history of that region? The book "Churchill's Folly" might be a useful starting point.
There have probably been more difficult times in which a new President took office, but the current combination of a military shambles, diplomatic chaos, economic crash and consumer panic does rather look like something of a perfect storm, doesn't it? For those inhabiting a cushy bubble in the District of Columbia, secure within the bastion of your own certitude, things may seem just swell, but for those who get out and about more, who see the breadth of our national Ponzi Scheme as it progressively unravels? Not so encouraging.
As President Bush bids farewell and bids farewell again and again and again, is it a surprise that his words are seen with favor? When the most popular statement a political figure is able to make is "Okay, I really am going away now", what does that tell us? I would argue that it is the only thing he could say that the American people ever want to hear from him. While other Presidents could look forward to a long and lucrative run on the lecture circuits of the world... Bush may not fare as well.
Arthur
Whether President Bush will ever experience any substantive rehabilitation in his lifetime, or perhaps in a half century or more in the future, is by definition something that we, cannot yet know. One is certainly free to predict that such a miracle will happen, but in my opinion it has roughly the same chances of success as our being greeted in Iraq by crowds throwing flowers and signing songs of praise, something the British should have known was highly unlikely from their botched 1920s adventure in nation-building and village-bombing there, shortly after the formation of the modern state of Iraq. Taking the Brits with us as our primary ally must have given many Iraqis pause, as they recalled Churchill's use of mustard gas and retaliatory bombings. Oh, sorry, had you not acquainted yourself with the history of that region? The book "Churchill's Folly" might be a useful starting point.
There have probably been more difficult times in which a new President took office, but the current combination of a military shambles, diplomatic chaos, economic crash and consumer panic does rather look like something of a perfect storm, doesn't it? For those inhabiting a cushy bubble in the District of Columbia, secure within the bastion of your own certitude, things may seem just swell, but for those who get out and about more, who see the breadth of our national Ponzi Scheme as it progressively unravels? Not so encouraging.
As President Bush bids farewell and bids farewell again and again and again, is it a surprise that his words are seen with favor? When the most popular statement a political figure is able to make is "Okay, I really am going away now", what does that tell us? I would argue that it is the only thing he could say that the American people ever want to hear from him. While other Presidents could look forward to a long and lucrative run on the lecture circuits of the world... Bush may not fare as well.
Arthur
No comments:
Post a Comment