Letters to the Editor
MereMortal
Published Letters: 151 Editor's Choice: 19
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General Betray us
[Read the article: The D.C. establishment versus American public opinion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]the way I see the problem is this:
they thought they could break Saddam's legs at the knees, get the thanks of the Iraqis (of all stripes) and do their pseudo-legitimized looting-game under the name of liberalizing the Iraqi economy.
With this success under their belt, Iran, Syria and various others would have the same 'regime change' treatment meted out to them.
it's the insurgency that put paid to this over-arching fantasy. Insurgencies are 'nearly' [but not totally] always impossible for conventional armies to fight. So all that has happened since then, is the administration's refusal to accept reality and responsibility for getting it wrong. They don't want to go for the obvious symbolic reasons of the years of malaise it will cause to the rampant militarism that infects the US body politic and also because it looks bad to be a loser.
But losing is what has happened. The US has lost in Iraq, at great cost in arms and men and in Iraqi civilians and insurgents' lives. a veritable avoidable and totally futile mass killing spree.
What an eviscerating disaster it has been. And what's worse is that it won't be over until the very adults in the US political system decide that enough is enough.
When Petreaus does his smooth act on the hill, the insurgents will have to think up something even more disgusting to weaken the will of the US political classes, and on the needless suffering will continue.
Until America is driven out of Iraq, the American military and the collateral damage in the form of Iraqi bystanders will be put through a horrific meat-grinder.
let's hope that history is very very unkind to this administration. If there is any justice that at least is surely a foregone conclusion.
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I have not come to praise Bush...
[Read the article: The scruffy charms of an insecure president]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have no doubt that Bush could come across as charming, or even funny in person...I was always taken by his brilliantly delivered ad-lib against Kerry in debate no1 "do you want any wood" after being accused of being the biggest forest owner in the country [or some such]
however let's be serious:
he is not an intellectual of any sort, even if his intellect is not 100% impaired
If you witness someone over a very long period [6 years at least] perform as diabolically ineptly as Bush regularly does when he's extemporising then you're getting a pretty decent glimpse into the inner turmoil that is his disordered mind.
But nor is this all down to whether the cogs and machinery of his mind allow him to qualify for innately intelligent or not. He is also emotionally stupid, being vicious when he considers anyone disloyal, holding grudges and lying really quite shamelessly. These are not the ideal traits of such an avowed and devout christian.
last but not least my charge against Bush is that he is not generative. By this I mean that he doesn't seem to own the words he speaks, he doesn't seem to generate any authentic communication, he's at his most effective when other people put words into his mouth, but even then he frequently comes across as if he doesn't really understand what he has been charged with saying. I also echo the sentiments expressed earlier, that all this litany of woes was achieved despite being
a) very rich since birth
b) having had all sorts of assistants that he could have made better use of
There are not many of us who are as heavily assisted as Bush and yet, it never seems to rub off on him.
Bush is not only a profoundly unimpressive man, he is incompetent, frequently peevish or downright furious, inarticulate, and he has set the tone and enabled the most criminal ever US administration, what does it matter if he grew on Draper....What next? Ted Bundy is real gas?
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@23skidoo
[Read the article: The scruffy charms of an insecure president]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]you get my vote for the most to the point and heat seeking missile of a letter to this 'red herring' of an article