05/09/04

On the way back from London and have been thinking about the most recent events from Iraq. The English papers have such a way with words, probably due to their strong but oddly limited sense of freedom of the press. There is a big article in one of the English papers titled "Sorry Mr. Bush, this is your America". A way with words indeed. A keen sense of ironic understatement as well. Or at least I would have said so had the whole prisoner torture debacle story surfaced a few weeks ago. Now I’m not so sure.

It would be easy to demonize Bush and company. Lots are doing this by now including the above-mentioned article. But is it really true? I had honestly thought so for a long time, however, I am not nearly so sure now.

For as long as I watch the current administration I cant help but come to the conclusion that they arent necessarily evil or diabolical. I think they are all just really, really stupid. Extraordinarily, clueless, incompetent people that are in so far over their head they cant even imagine where the top is anymore. The "Peter Principle" gone global.

It really is the only thing that makes sense at this point. I know all the other theories, both from their supporters and their detractors. But the only plausable reasons I can imagine for their policies and activities are that their supporters are right, they honestly thought for instance that we would be welcomed into Iraq with flowers and kisses for bringing a new democracy to Iraq and a new age of Democracy and reason to the Arab world. I think they really believed that. They werent paying lip service to it while really looking for oil or contracts for Halliburton. They really believed that something would happen that any reasonable, thinking person realized simply wasn’t possible.

Lets look at the cast of characters. Lets start with Bush himself. About the best people say about him is that he isn’t really dumb, he just sounds that way because he doesn’t speak well in public. There is absolutely no reason to believe that is true. It isnt that he just can’t give speeches to big crowds. Even in one on one interviews or answering questions it is apparent that he doesnt have one single clue as to the world around him. He can’t remember stuff, he can’t hear something and critically analyse and intelligently respond to it. He is a beta minus at best. And he is the leader of the pack from what I can tell. What of the others then?

Let me start with Colin Powell. The reason I want to start with him is because I just can’t figure him out and so I dont have much to say about him. He obviously is a bright guy and he has obviously disagreed with the rest of them on a lot of the major failings. But he stays and I can’t figure out why. Maybe he feels obligated to try to minimize the damage the other idiots do to the world. A noble cause to be sure but a failed one. He would do more good, at least at this point with a complete hissy fit resignation, citing all of their failings and the immeasureable damage that these people have done to the reputation of the US Army with the torture disaster. October would be a good time for that. The army is an institution he truely loves. That was apparent from the speech he gave at his retirement from the army. Well, these people he works for have now dragged the reputation of that institution down into the gutter with the worst kind of barbarians, thugs and criminals and it will be a generation at least before it recovers and once again will be held in any more esteem than a bunch of mob thugs (my apologies to the mob thugs, they at least only do work like that for business, not for fun) in the eyes of anyone in this country and even more so abroad. At some point Mr. Powell is going to have to make a decision about what the meaning of his life will be, and what he would like people to think he believes in.

Next lets consider the vice-president. Ive seen all the jokes, and well, they’re damn funny some of them. I love the one with a picture of Bush and Cheney with Bush talking and Cheney drinking a glass of water. The caption goes something like "VP Cheney shows a new trick by drinking a glass of water while Bush talks." Yea, its funny, but why do people think that. Why to people have this view of Cheney as this super-intelligent modern day Machiaveli. Not from anything he has done, that’s for sure. Okay, he was a congressman from some state with like 30,000 people. BFD. We all know that any fool can become a congressman and many have. Okay, then there was his role as George I's Secretary of Defense during the first war for Iraqi independence. Near as I can tell most of his reputation as a genius comes from Woodward’s book describing him as the mastermind behind that war. I don’t believe that for a second. First, he was likely the source for most of the stuff in Woody's book. I could end here, but there is so much more.

At the time I recall the articles in the Post about how John Sununu was using government planes to go to the dentist and stuff. Well, that was it for John-boy and the Washington parlor game came became who ratted-out Sununu. One of the prime candidates was then Secretary of Defense Cheney. The reason cited: he was angry that Sununu wouldn’t let him on Air Force 1 when they were all going someplace during the Gulf War. It isn’t like he put him on the Shuttle or something (at least I think not) but no AF1. And this was during the war he masterminded? What is wrong with this picture? Then there is the Halliburton experience. Again, people say "Oh, he was the CEO of Halliburton, thats a real big company" as if that means he is smart. Details of some shareholder's opinion can be found in their suit against him about accounting practices. Then there is the asbestos liability problem. Yes, Im aware of the conspiracy theories regarding the Bush family concerning that deal, but maybe he was just stupid. Arg, enough for today. The next one to explain is Rumsfeld. Talking about this has taken too much out of me to talk about Rummy. It is too depressing and frightening. I need to regain my strength before discussing Rumsfeld.