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Classics of Liberal Thinking

by Rob Kall

OpEdNews.Com

Bush's inadequate grasp of the English language, his inability to communicate screams in the face of the travesty of Iraqi prisoner tortures. Now, more than ever, the US faces the hatred, scorn and wrath of the Arab world. It takes a smart, articulate leader to respond to such horrors. Bush fails in so many ways. Bush said,

""I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated," President Bush said. "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. And so I didn't like it one bit."

 His comments are not nearly good enough. They are pathetic, thoughtless blurtings of a fool. It is a time like this that we need a leader who has the ability to communicate, to eloquently express the horror, shock, and apology that is necessary. Obviously his speechwriters weren't able to supply him with words with any resemblance to the words of a thoughtful leader. The real Bush came through with a gigantic thud. 

 Bush is incapable of intelligent, compassionate, responsible speech. He struggles with sentences over a dozen words. He's unable to apologize, unable to take responsibility, unable to say "you're fired."

This is another example of the leader failing to accept that the buck stops with him, that ultimately, these atrocities happened under his watch. But wait. He may be firing someone-- the general who was in charge of the prison might be suspended (though she's rotated out of the assignment, so even she may not have been disciplined.)

Watching Bush fail to respond like a competent leader when faced with such atrocities as the Iraqi prisoners experienced, it reminds us how horrible it is that the Justices Powell and Scalia and O'connor cast the key votes to place this idiot in office. It reminds us that his strongest constituencies celebrate him for his inability to string together intelligent sentences. They celebrate him for his oafish, good 'ol frat-boy  charm.

But this time, when we see these shameful, awful pictures of prisoners tortured in blatant violation of all the rules, we know that Bush's inability to communicate like Reagan or Clinton, Carter, or even Nixon could, no, surely will have a profound effect upon the billion plus Arab and Muslims on this planet. Now, when the idea of American freedom, of US democracy is brought up, it will be a pathetic joke, a travesty of the true ideals. Why? Because on Bush's watch, military intelligence leaders encouraged the creation of an adverse environment that would facilitate cooperation by prisoners.

Why? Because the military reservists working as guards in the prison didn't know the most basic rules for the treatment of prisoners. The New York Times reports,

"A leading human rights group said the military should investigate whether the soldiers' superiors had ordered or tolerated the abuse.

"The brazenness with which these soldiers conducted themselves ... suggests they felt they had nothing to hide from their superiors," said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch.

Fhe way things w ork in Bush's Washington,  it's possible that CIA Director George Tenet will be blamed for this. He seems to be the designated blame receiver for the Bush administration. But he doesn't have to worry. He's carrying on in the tradition of another spook-- J. Edgar Hoover, who had so much dirt on all the power people in Washington that he had to die to leave his job. It's clear that Tenet has enough dirt on Bush and the rest of the Bush cabinet to kill Bush's run for re-election. Even Donald Trump couldn't fire him.

Then again, it's highly likely that there are a lot of people who Bush can't fire because they'd turn on him. Matter of fact, there are so many, that Bush's cup is running over. He's no longer able to silence all the people who know what an incompetent, poorly advised, stupid, lying fool he is.

There are about six billion people on this planet who do know it. And there are about fifty percent of the people in the US who know what a total, incompetent  failure Bush is. That leaves the Stupid white men right wing blue collar southerners, the right wing fascist brain-dead Christians and the greedy, short-sighted people earning over $200,000 a year who fail to see that the price they are paying to save a few thousand in taxes is the judicial and economic, spiritual and ecological health of the nation they spend their wealth in.

I cannot imagine any wealthy person who would be willing to allow a stupid, tongue-tied fool like George Bush run any company they'd have their money invested in. Maybe they'd approve of him as a marketing shill, as a PR front-man, or a person to use to make connections happen in corrupt third world countries, but not in a real position of authority.  After all, Bush is a genius when it comes to interpersonal intelligence. But that specialized kind of intelligence is good for winning high school and fraternity elections, not for leading our nation, not for facing tragedy and travesty.

What can the rest of the world think of the America of Republican George W. Bush? That we're now no longer charmingly quaint, like a primitive tribe, but under George W. Bush's, Tom DeLay's and Bill Frist's leadership the US is actually virulently dangerous, a threat to the stability of the planet, a target for the millions of hornets nests of angry Muslims who see Bush as a replacement who is not much better than Saddam, and possibly worse. At least Saddam didn't have nukes and humorless Gestapo chiefs like John Ashcroft. 

The stupidity of these prison tortures is unbounded. Undoubtedly, these atrocities will lead to the deaths of many more Americans-- both troops facing hostile actions and victims of terrorists newly inspired to jihad by the pictures plastered all over the electronic media. 

Shortly before the beginning of the WWII, Sinclair Lewis wrote a book titled, It Can't Happen Here. It described a US that was taken over by a corrupt president-- a dumb but folksy yokel-- with smart, duplicitous advisors. Gradually, they erased recognizable signs of democracy, justice, education and freedom. It is happening here. But it hasn't gone as far as Lewis described in his book.... yet. One test will be how the nation responds to the shame of the Abu Ghraib prison. If the stupid white men who support Bush fail to wake up after this latest slap in the face to American honor, integrity and respectability, it will be a sign that it can indeed Happen Here.