Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, ‘Something is out of tune.’
Carl Jung
Back when our busy congressional representatives were changing the wording on the menu of the Capitol’s cafeteria from “French” Fries to “Freedom Fries” there was no end to the hubris of this administration and its lackeys.
How times have changed! Now we must go banging our cup, begging for troops and money to pay for the “infrastructure” that we destroyed in Iraq. Bush and his crew called the United Nations “irrelevant” and said that the United States would “go it alone” and called the Germans and the French and the fourteen million protesters “a focus group” that had no bearing on his decision to “Shock and Awe” a sovereign country.
Eighty Seven-Billion Dollars. One year’s estimated expense. Don’t let’s count lives. They have no value. Forget about the loss of anything: Financial stability, families, children’s futures, grandparents’ stability. Focus only on today’s words from the mouth of George Walker Bush. But tomorrow, forget what he said yesterday or you will be called a “historical revisionist.” Because whatever he said tomorrow that conflicts with what he said today will become the “new truth.” Or will it become the “new lie?”
Unfortunately for me, I remember what people have said and I watch what people do. It is unfortunate because many times those two things don’t line up well. Thankfully, I was taught to ignore the words and watch the actions, because those actions were the true barometers, the words might try to paint a pretty picture and deceive me, but the actions–those were the concrete evidence of the course that was paved.
I remember when George Walker Bush said that he was going to pick up where his daddy left off. It made me cold to imagine that scenario. When George Herbert Walker Bush was running our country, he played no small part in the decimation of the savings and loan industry. He led our country to war with Iraq (based on fabricated evidence), he plundered our treasury and oversaw the largest deficits in the history of our country. High unemployment and homelessness soared.
To watch those words actually match the actions of his son–following his father’s footsteps–those actions have brought my country to a critical place where our future is uncertain, security is flawed and untrustworthy, our treasuries are empty and global goodwill is at an all-time low.
I know there are many people that relish the opportunity to give back as good as they get. The French were called “cheese eating surrender monkeys” and last week Richard Boucher (State Department spokesman) called France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg “chocolate making countries.” I do not know if France and Germany will repay our administration’s kindness(?). I wonder. When George Walker Bush said “you are either with us or against us” and alienated the world with his unilateral actions and his complete disregard for diplomacy, did he put the United States in a better position to call upon those countries for assistance and support? Or did he, as I fear, give the rest of the world the opportunity to watch as the global bully overextended itself?
Humility is a rare gift in a politician. It is one that is now very necessary for George Walker Bush. Will he actually realize that without truly understanding his mistakes and missteps and cease to demand that the world allow the United States of America rulership over Iraq’s resources and political future? If he continues to demand such, I do not believe that we will be able to ask the rest of the world to support now what they did not support in March of 2003.
“Old Europe” may take the attitude that they were not there when the plane took off and do not need to be there when it crashes.
BRIDGET GIBSON can be reached at: rbsclay@grm.net