Monday, January 15, 2007
DUMB, DELUSIONAL, OR CRAFTY?
Some have thought for years that George W. Bush is as dumb as a post. That may or may not be correct. Certainly most of the major events of his presidency would make it seem so, as well as his everyday mannerisms and verbal expressions. His lack of culture and erudition has been obvious.
Many of this president's actions and proposals have had signs of an obsessed, delusional ideologue, i.e. a person who sees only one side of an issue and is blind to any logic on the other side. His Social Security privatization proposals and his lying about its timing and "going broke" are examples. Add to this his "stay the course," "we're winning" utterances and statements of position on Iraq, capped by his famous "as long as I am president, we will stay in Iraq" speech. The denial of reality in these utterances and behaviors is an indicator of a delusional person.
The question then arises: Is George W. Bush delusional, or is he just dumb enough to be brainwashed and become the tool of the neo-con ideologues who have been bunched around him, and who have conistently shielded him from outside information and influences? Self-confessed as not being much of a reader, who does not read newpapers or listen to TV news, who claims an aversion to intellectualism, who looks in other leaders' eyes and sees their souls, who makes his decisions by faith and under the influence of a higher power, and who believes himself as not only above the law but one whose word is law -- all these characteristics make Mr. Bush vulnerable to manipulation by brighter persons around him.
There has to be something behind the decision to escalate the war in Iraq at a time when two-thirds of the people and nearly every sensible leader, as revealed in the Iraq Study Commission, find a military solution unworkable. It could be that our president is just dumb, arrogant, and stubborn. Or, maybe he is indeed delusional to the point of being mentally ill. Then, again, perhaps he has been brainwashed by his advisory corps of ideologues into thinking that this is somehow a good solution. Since escalation of the war is not a reasonable decision, there must be some other explanation.
Let us consider the possibility of a crafty Bush, or at least the hypothesis of crafty political advisors.
If functioning sensibly at all, this president must face the reality of an unwinnable quagmire in Iraq. (At least, it is un-winnable in the definition of his redneck conservative base.) He is told by everybody that there is no good solution. There is no way to turn. There is no way out. What does one do?
A crafty politician would find a way to blame somebody else for the failure.
One could easily argue that Mr. Bush and his advisors are craftily trying to force the democrats to call his hand and stop him. Suppose the democrats succeed in thwarting Mr. Bush's escalation, and it fails -- as it is bound to do? Then this president has found his way out. He will then blame the democrats for preventing his "success," and only then will he make an exit move.
Should we sacrifice another thousand soldiers' lives, and the wounding of many more, in order to allow Mr. Bush to save his political face?
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
