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On Flipping and Flopping

by Martin Nemer

OpEdNews.com

The “FLIPS” and “FLOPS” of George W. Bush resonate each time he uses these words in his campaign. He has FLIPPED the meanings of words and phrases to opposite usage; so that phrases, chosen to name policies and legislation, hide their true nature: “Clear Skies” hides more polluted air, global warming, and the destruction of our environment. “Healthy Forests” hides increased logging. “No Child Left Behind” hides short-changing of education. “Faith-based initiative” hides the potentially intrusive involvement of government in religion that our forefathers fled. “U.S.A. Patriot Act” hides suppression of dissent. Even the claim of a “safer world without Saddam Hussein” hides the increased frequency of terrorist attacks since his demise. Even the seeming assurance that “we are fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here” hides the sadly lost opportunity of tracking down the terrorists when we had them cornered in Afghanistan .

In addition to the deceptive FLIPS embedded in his words and declarations, we have suffered through Bush’s dismal FLOPS in policies and actions.  At home, the budget deficit leads with a belly FLOP, followed by FLOPS in health care, prescription drugs and gainful employment level. Abroad, the “Mission Accomplished,” proclaimed in a quasi fighter pilot setting, became an increasingly dreadful FLOP. His poorly planned follow up to the quick invasion of Iraq snatched something like defeat from the jaws of victory. Meanwhile, an unsecured Afghanistan in continuing chaos became a serious FLOP, as terrorists melted away into Pakistan and showed up in Iraq (where they never were before). Instead of turning Iraq into a shining light for democracy, our occupation has become a beacon for the recruitment of countless new terrorists from all corners of an incensed Islamic world, and thus an increased threat for some of them getting through to do harm to America .

Recently at the United Nations, George W. Bush continued to hide the wrong turn he took from Afghanistan to Iraq . Following 9/11, even the most adverse regimes in the Islamic world voiced some sympathy or allegiance with America ’s cause. Moreover, since the extremist direction of the Taliban posed a threat to every Islamic country, arising from their own internal extremist factions, it was not inconceivable then that we could have exploited their self interest in the pursuit of terrorists. The backtracking to regain some measure of cooperation by Islamic, as well as non-Islamic, countries has been made extremely difficult by the failures and turmoil incurred in Afghanistan and Iraq , as well as by the lack of credibility of the Bush administration. Nevertheless, we should set this cooperation as a major objective in the long-term pursuit of terrorists. The blemish incurred by George W. Bush on the perception of American intensions calls for a new president and a fresh level of American credibility.

Martin Nemer Martin.Nemer@fccc.edu Bucks County , PA  Senior Member Emeritus, Fox Chase Cancer Center. A.B.,Kenyon College, M.A.,Ph.D., Harvard University. 40 years doing basic biomedical research.

originally published in THE INTELLIGENCER Doylestown, PA