Rich is a curious personality, formerly the NY Times drama critic, of all things. One could argue that he learned something about drama from all of those years watching them. What he is seeing in the Bush/ Torture/Lies nexus was a desperate effort to force people to give the Bush administration something, anything in order to justify them doing what Bush and Cheney appear to have been obsessed with doing. (Click HERE for the column.)
Both men would appear to have destroyed their reputations forever and taken with them the reputations and careers of those who were complicit in their efforts. At some point we need to ask, what was it about Iraq that drove the two men to risk all, to risk their nation, in order to conquer and control it? Was it the oil? or was it a personal issue, that they found Saddam Hussein such an irritating tin- pot dictator that they'd just had it with him?
The entire last eight years have something of the quality of a Greek tragedy. Good intentions gone wrong, men corrupted by power, the terrible consequences of bad decisions they were warned against. The only thing needed was a Greek Chorus in the background singing a song of doleful warning at each turn of the plot:
Oh Bush, young Bush do not take this step!
Your father's shame, your family's name.
All will be swept away as sand before a storm,
Do not take these steps, no! no! Omigod!
All is ruined, all is spoiled, all is finished, all is war.
War not for cause, war not for purpose, but
war as a terrible global video game, awash in hubris,
blood, depleted uranium and depleted reputations.
Weep for what could have been, weep for the election
that was not an election, for the Supreme Court,
all tainted, all soiled, all disgraced and shamed.
The end of promise, the demise of a political party.
Arthur
Both men would appear to have destroyed their reputations forever and taken with them the reputations and careers of those who were complicit in their efforts. At some point we need to ask, what was it about Iraq that drove the two men to risk all, to risk their nation, in order to conquer and control it? Was it the oil? or was it a personal issue, that they found Saddam Hussein such an irritating tin- pot dictator that they'd just had it with him?
The entire last eight years have something of the quality of a Greek tragedy. Good intentions gone wrong, men corrupted by power, the terrible consequences of bad decisions they were warned against. The only thing needed was a Greek Chorus in the background singing a song of doleful warning at each turn of the plot:
Oh Bush, young Bush do not take this step!
Your father's shame, your family's name.
All will be swept away as sand before a storm,
Do not take these steps, no! no! Omigod!
All is ruined, all is spoiled, all is finished, all is war.
War not for cause, war not for purpose, but
war as a terrible global video game, awash in hubris,
blood, depleted uranium and depleted reputations.
Weep for what could have been, weep for the election
that was not an election, for the Supreme Court,
all tainted, all soiled, all disgraced and shamed.
The end of promise, the demise of a political party.
Arthur
No comments:
Post a Comment