Reconnect to Reality

The policies of this administration, political and military, have gone completely into “Looking Glass” territory. I no longer can make any sense of them whatever.

Bush has been blustering for years about not distinguishing between terrorists and “nations which harbor them”, but when Pakistan announces that they have declared a safe haven for the Taliban, al Queda and Bin Laden within their borders he says that he cannot violate that safe haven unless Pakistan “invites us” to do so.

It’s not that I disagree with Bush on this, it’s that it defies rational explanation. Most people learn in grade school that it is a bad idea to strut around the schoolyard mouthing idle threats but, after years of making threats against nations that harbor terrorists, when Pakistan does precisely that Bush falls completely silent.

Additionally, this administration continues to provide foreign aid money to Pakistan and refers to them as an ally. This regarding a nation that is harboring the Taliban, who are actively engaged in killing our soldiers as I write this.

Bush at one time swore to capture Bin Laden, then said that he was of no importance. This year he has become the main “talking point” again, and is supposed to be the prime target of our “war on terror”, but this administration admits that capturing or killing him actually won’t make much difference and it’s acceptable for our ally Pakistan to provide him with a safe haven. Meanwhile he continues to be touted as our main enemy.

This goes beyond empty rhetoric, it has descended to senseless babble.

Thousands of our soldiers have died, and tens of thousands have been maimed, to establish a “free Iraq.” Now the leader of that new government is forming a pact of friendship with Iran, one which includes military assistance from Iran, which Bush has labeled part of an “axis of evil” and the greatest threat to world peace, and Bush has nothing critical to say about it.

Our young men and women have done all this dying and bleeding in Iraq’s behalf, only to have it become allied with the “axis of evil,” and that’s okay?

The violence continues to grow worse and worse in Iraq, with the denials of civil war becoming more and more strident and less and less believable.

"The enemy is changing tactics, and we're adapting," Bush said this past Friday in reference to the ongoing violence in that unhappy country.

That is the worst possible way to conduct military operations. In military parlance it’s called “being constantly behind the curve.” It’s a defensive posture, and it means you are losing. You defeat an enemy by taking the initiative, by making the enemy adapt to you. You are usually behind the curve when fighting an enemy that’s smarter than you, or one that badly outnumbers you.

Our military used to be both smarter and bigger than any other in the world, and now the Commander-in-Chief is touting our losing strategy.

Bush defined the success of terrorism as a, “radical Islamic empire where women are prisoners in their homes, men are beaten for missing prayer meetings and terrorists have a safe haven to plan and launch attacks on America and other civilized nations.”

That is a detailed, perfect description of Saudi Arabia coming from the mouth of our President, a country which we support and with whose ruling family the Bush family is closely tied. Remember that most of the 9/11 perpetrators came from Saudi Arabia. None, not one of them came from Iraq, which we blamed for 9/11, invaded and destroyed.

Does he think at all before he disgorges this blather?

We’re building a fence on our border to protect ourselves from Mexico, but we are angered that Saudi Arabia wants to build a fence on its border to protect itself from the violence in Iraq. Violence, it should be noted, that we created.

A creation that this administration is still trying to justify with outright, transparent lies. Long after publication of documented evidence that Iraq had no WMD’s, was not a threat to obtain WMD’s, and had no connection to terrorists, Bush had the gall to say, standing on the hallowed ground where so many lost their lives,

“I am often asked why we are in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the Nine-Eleven attacks. The answer is that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a clear threat.” A clear threat to what?

I am not surprised when politicians lie, it’s part of the sick game that Washington has become. But to spout over and over lies that have already been publicly revealed as totally false? Is he so disconnected from reality that he expects anyone to believe him?

Albert Einstein said that, "We cannot solve a problem with the same level of mentality that created it."

We cannot shed ourselves of this cancer in the nation’s highest office for a bit more than two years, but hopefully we will begin improving the level of mentality in the nation’s leadership, begin reconnecting to reality, by changing the makeup of Congress in the upcoming elections.