Thursday, December 18, 2008

Look Back In Anger

President Bush is on his so called "Legacy Tour" in which he is attempting to make the case that his presidency has been an unequivocal success. Among his claims are that he kept America safe from terrorism, won the war in Iraq and stabilized the Middle East. He takes no blame for the current economic situation because he says, he inherited these problems from his successors (including his father). His Vice President is also in the process of reinterpreting the past. He feels so secure in himself that he is actually admitting in public that approved the torturing of prisoners and that we are safer because of it.

I'm sure that every President tries to make his case on the way out of office, but this administration has been particularly dismissive of the public’s perception of their actions. Vice President Cheney infamously answered “So”, when he was informed of the fact that the majority of Americans wanted the US to leave Iraq. A monarch never feels the need to explain to or seek the approval of the people and the Bush administration has certainly been run as if they had that power. They have ignored and trampled on the Constitution and blatantly ignored the rights of everyone and everything that came across their path. This Imperial presidency was planned for and carried out with ingenious precision by George Bush and his team. Just a year ago, the President seemed confident that history would show that he was not only correct, but that he was prescient in taking the steps that he did.

The failures of this administration are almost too many to list, but they never felt the need to explain themselves before. Did you know that everything is great in New Orleans? The President himself said so a mere matter of weeks after the Katrina disaster. Never mind the fact that to this day, there are still people who are living in trailers. Never mind the fact that the emergency trailers that were provided were later found out to have been built with toxic materials. Never mind that there are people who lost their lives needlessly. The President said everything was fine and so in his mind, it is so. The war in Iraq, which this President declared over five years ago, is now a success because of the last 12 months. Never mind the fact that over 4,000 Americans have lost their lives. Never mind the fact that up to a million Iraqi’s may have lost their lives. Never mind the fact that terrorists continue to kill innocent Iraqi’s to this day. Never mind that fact that Al Qaeda never existed in Iraq until we go there. The President says it’s a success and so it is.

This is an example of the revisionist history that the President and Vice President are now trying to sell to the American people. It seems they have forgotten the rule about monarchs and their lack of accountability. They now seem to be worried that their legacy is not going to be the stuff of Mount Rushmore. And they have every right to be concerned. If there were a monument for the worst Presidents of all time, George W. Bush would be sitting for a sculptor as we speak. I’m thoroughly convinced that Dick Cheney’s soul is a dark place that long ago had a place reserved on one of the lower levels of hell.

The Legacy tour should instead be a tour of apology. He should personally apologize to the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, children and friends of every single soldier who has died for his folly. He should have to apologize to every family who lost a loved one in New Orleans. He should have to apologize to every Iraqi family who has had their lives irreparably harmed by the baseless incursion of our armed forces into their country. He should apologize to every family who has lost a home in the mortgage crisis. He should apologize to every person who has lost a job during this economic disaster. He should apologize to every single inmate who was tortured or held indefinitely without the benefit of counsel. He should apologize to every American for stripping our rights away and making us fear our government. That is what he should be spending his time on. Not on making speeches in which he tries to take credit for successes that could only be seen that way by someone with blinders on. If he would like to take credit for keeping us safe from terrorism then he should have to talk to the families of every victim of the 9/11 attacks and ask them how safe their loved ones were from terrorism.

3 comments:

SJ said...

Well said.
But I disagree, it's not "revisionism," it's lying.
This man, George W. Bush, is a liar.
...and he has to lie, because to tell the truth, to concede the reality of his administration's actions and policies would land him and his Vice President in jail for Treason among other offenses.
I'm so glad to see him go.
-SJ

Hazzy said...

Nice to see some new Hew-posts.
When Bushy first took office I worried about how...simple he seemed. I was assured that he was surrounded by smart people. Within a year or two, all the smart people displayed those smarts by gettin' the heck out of W-ville.
My nephew Christopher went to Iraq early on thinking he was going to punish the terrorists responsible for 9-11. Instead he returned a sad young man, troubled that he had to kill for no clear reason. For that alone, I want Bush to get an ass kicking. Hell, I'd settle for a shoe upside the head.

SJ said...

Damn straight Heffrey. Shoes all around for everybody.
I'm gonna check with MH and see if it's all right to start another blog on his network, -one devoted to culture, media, art... you know comic books and stuff. "Random Thoughts" has evolved into something awfully serious so I don't want to dilute that with movie reviews or an exegesis of Alan Moore's run on "Swamp Thing" for example. This new blog would be a place for the kinds of things Mike was doing at the start, i.e. top movies, criticism, citing forgotten or underappreciated movies and books etc. It'll be a great place to write reviews of movies and graphic novels. I'd love to bring you in as a fellow contributor. You're really the only comics expert I swear by. I'd like to launch after MLK day in '09.
Let me know if you're interested I think you'd have a lot to say.
-SJ