The Madness of King George

Over the last weeks we have been treated to the spectacle of a President who is increasingly out of touch with reality and for whatever reason is less and less inhibited about showing it.

 

First we had George as the dancing bear outside the Oval Office as he waited to endorse John McCain.

Last Friday, we had the President telling the Economic Club of New York, "I'm coming to you as an optimistic fellow," exactly at the time that Bear Stearns' stock price was nose-diving and behind the scenes efforts were underway for JP Morgan to buy the once venerable bank for 7 cents on the dollar in an effort to stave off further bank collapses. Not since the 1930's had such a government guaranteed deal been necessary; but George was optimistic.

The most insightful and revolting look into Bush's emotional and intellectual state came on Thursday in a videoconference the President held with American military reconstruction teams in Afghanistan. 

After hearing his troops tell him of their reconstruction trials and tribulations, including stories of all-night tea drinking sessions with tribal leaders, Bush had this to say:

"I must say, I'm a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."   

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks."

The reaction from US veterans was swift and clear: there is nothing romantic about war and a President who maintains such an idealized fantasy about death and killing is not fit to be Commander-in-Chief. A few reactions from a pro-military website, Votevets.org:

"We finally have empirical evidence proving that President Bush has absolutely no idea what war is all about. A Commander-in-Chief with such a child-like view of combat is in no way fit to lead America's Armed Forces during a time of conflict. Having served in eastern Afghanistan myself, I can assure you that there is nothing romantic about being decisively engaged with Taliban and al Qaeda elements for 15 months at a time. While President Bush thinks it would be a "fantastic experience" to fight in Afghanistan, it is anything but fantastic for our troops currently there. They are undermanned and under resourced because the war in Iraq--a war for which he is responsible." ~ BRANDON FRIEDMAN, OEF VETERAN

"As a combat wounded veteran who served in Afghanistan, I have to disagree with the President's assertion that the war in Afghanistan is romantic. There was nothing romantic about having to dig through our trash during operation Anaconda because we ran out of food and were awaiting a resupply. As American soldiers always do, we accomplished the mission; but there was nothing romantic about it." ~ BRIAN MCGOUGH, OEF VETERAN

"I didn't feel like there was anything romantic in not seeing my daughter grow up, in watching Afghan children starve to death, in explaining repeated deployment extensions to my soldiers, in explaining to Afghans that we were there to keep them safe - while knowing that we would never have enough troops to actually do so. No, Mr. President, there's nothing romantic about being sent on an important mission and not being given the tools to accomplish it." ~ JIM MORIN, OEF VETERAN

The Commander-in-Chief's pining for the romanticism of war was all the more disgusting coming one day before the start of 'Winter Soldier' in Washington, D.C. where US veterans gathered to tell their emotional and harrowing experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. In one panel discussion on the rules of engagement, I heard testimony about 'free-fire' zones where there was no need to distinguish between combatants and civilians; of routine indiscriminate targeting of Iraqi vehicles that were unfortunate enough to share a road with a military vehicle; and of an AC-130 gunship attack on an apartment building largely filled with civilians.

And to add insult to injury, this is the same George W. Bush who successfully kept his own butt out of service in Vietnam, surely one of America's most romantic wars ever.

Ahhh, George, isn't it romantic: the moonlit magic of young Americans lying together in pools of warm flowing blood, urine and feces; the near acrobatic splendor of flying human body parts; the lyric sounds of dying teenagers screaming for their mothers; and the angelic tranquility of little baby bodies underneath those magnificent ancient stones of Babylon. This is all even better than the sweet smell of napalm in the morning!

Mr. President, your recent behavior no longer calls only your general level of intelligence and competence into question, it is making us wonder if you are losing it all together. I guess we will just have to hold our breath and cross our fingers until January 20, 2009, hoping that your madness doesn't lead us into any disasters even bigger then the ones you have brought upon us up till now.

Comments

[Jamie]

Lenny,
Once more you have hit it on the head. George has always romanticized war because he never had to fight one. He is, and always has been, like a child, in love with the uniform and the flight suit and the helmet he got to wear in the fighter plane.
I recently heard Fay Vincent, the former major league baseball commissioner interviewed, and he said that Bush had called him many years ago, before W became governor of Texas, in an effort to enlist his aid in becoming baseball commissioner himself. Unfortunately, for the world, that didn't happen. Think of all the lives, the countless lives, especially, but not limited to, innocents that would have been saved.

[lennybruce]

Hi James,

Thnks for stopping by and commenting. Never had heard that before. Shame it didnt happen. It would have been a lot better if George had screwed up the national pastime as opposed to now having screwed up the nation.