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President Bush, I think we need to talk
Clarence Page
Clarence Page is a syndicated Chicago Tribune columnist based in
Washington.
August 17, 2005
I sympathize with Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who wants to talk to
President George W. Bush about her son, who was killed in Iraq. I also
sympathize with President Bush. It can't be easy to look as confident as
he usually does while he's trying to get his country out of a bigger mess
than he expected to get it into.
It is August, normally a no-news time in which the president can roll up
his shirtsleeves and clear brush around his Crawford, Texas, ranch while
news cameras click and roll and his approval ratings soar.
Presidential approvals tend to ascend in August, regardless of which party
happens to be in power. The American people, in accord with Thomas
Jefferson, seem to appreciate government the most when it is governing the
least.
But Sheehan isn't having that. The Vacaville, Calif., mom threw a big clod
into Bush's butter churn. She set up camp with other war protesters
outside the president's ranch Aug. 6 and vowed to keep her vigil until
Bush meets with her and other mothers to explain why their children had to
die in Iraq and to hear her argument for quickly ending the war.
She's hardly alone. A new poll by CNN, USA Today and The Gallup
Organization found a third of those surveyed say the United States should
withdraw all troops from Iraq. That is the highest percentage calling for
a full withdrawal since Gallup began asking the question in August 2003.
Also, a majority of Americans now feel the war has made them "less safe"
from terrorism and that the United States made a mistake in sending troops
to Iraq.
Of course, if Bush could end the war quickly, he would. Just as nobody
believes Bush can't afford to pay somebody to clear his brush, hardly
anybody believes he has much of a plan to get us out of Iraq.
I, too, would like to talk to the president. I'd like to talk to him about
how it feels to live near Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
Hardly a week goes by that I do not run into a young, wounded GI at a
local supermarket or movie theater who is getting used to the latest
technology in artificial arms and legs.
Like the president, I don't want their sacrifices to be in vain.
I'd like to trade war stories with my fellow Vietnam-era veteran. I was
drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War. Like Bush, I never saw
combat. I knew quite a few who did. I hoped that my generation had learned
its lessons about getting into wars without having a clear strategy for
how we were going to win. It sickens me that my generation isn't as smart
as I had hoped we would be.
The president is properly worried that Iraqis are not ready to handle
their own security well enough for the United States to begin leaving
anytime soon.
None of the news coming out of Iraq disputes that.
A quick withdrawal could lead to all-out civil war between Iraq's
factions, which may be building anyway, and no one knows what kind of
chaos or despots could emerge out of that.
Now we have Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld last week accusing Iran
of allowing increasingly sophisticated IEDs, or improvised explosive
devices, and other weapons to make their way across the border to
insurgents in Iraq.
Iran? Oh, yes. Iran, with its long record of sponsoring terrorism against
Israel and the United States, is becoming a nuclear power and not a
terribly friendly one.
That's why I'd like to ask President Bush whether he got his countries
mixed up. Did he really mean to invade Iran? Does he now wish that we had?
Questions like that help explain why the president's handlers steer him
exclusively to friendly audiences - and why his surrogates try to
challenge the patriotism of reporters and commentators who get too uppity.
We all make mistakes. Team Bush just doesn't want to admit any. That's too
bad. Facing up to your mistakes is the first step toward avoiding more in
the future.
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-oppag174386745aug17,0,7193954.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines
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| User: "Woodswun" |
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| Title: Re: President Bush, I think we need to talk |
17 Aug 2005 04:28:07 PM |
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Doc wrote:
President Bush, I think we need to talk
Clarence Page
Clarence Page is a syndicated Chicago Tribune columnist based in
Washington.
August 17, 2005
I sympathize with Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who wants to talk
to President George W. Bush about her son, who was killed in Iraq. I
also sympathize with President Bush. It can't be easy to look as
confident as he usually does while he's trying to get his country out of
a bigger mess than he expected to get it into.
It's easy when you're a medicated meglomaniac who has surround yourself
surrounded with toadies.
Woods
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