In their world, it’s all about making each other rich, and that’s the right thing to do. That’s why they’re in government. What was behind Bush’s pathetic attempt to privatize Social Security but a massive planned handout of play money to Wall Street? And hey, as long as Halliburton and Bechtel and Blackwater are making money out of the Iraq War, why the hell call it off? So a few thousand poor grunts die in the process, so what?
Dick Cheney’s recent conversational to-and-fro with a reporter bears repeating.
Reporter: “Two-thirds of the American people think the war in Iraq wasn’t worth fighting.”
Cheney (big smile): “So?”
Reporter (shocked): “So? You don’t care what the American people think?”
Cheney: “No. I think you can’t be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”
There you have it. That’s the responsible-to-nobody arrogance of the American CEO in a nutshell.
Bill Clinton had all the character of a dry cow dung patty, but Bush-Cheney went one further: they’re bad characters. One can characterize the Bush presidency as a timeline of little lies, medium lies and whoppers, starting with lying us into a war that even Bush doesn’t remember why he started. Also, we now know that Cheney, Rumsfeld, and fellow-travelers Condi Rice and Colin Powell actually sat around in meetings after 9/11 deciding what methods of torture should be used on any terrorists they caught. Nobody, it appears, for a moment said: “Hey, guys, what the hell are we doing? This is wrong. We’re Americans, not the Spanish Inquisition. We shouldn’t let the terrorists make us as bad as they are.” No. In fact, Cheney told the media we have to “work the dark side.” In other words, we have to do knowingly wrong.
An insight into Bush’s character is revealed in General Sanchez 'new book, where he remembers this outburst from Bush giving a confused pep talk to his top generals and national security people:
“Kick ass! If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can’t send that message. It’s an excuse to set us up for withdrawal. There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!”
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
Wow Adam, this one is so amazingly out of touch with reality it's like you're channelling messages from another universe.
Nice to see you're warming up to Bush, though.
Dave
2 - maria
this is a great article. I hope that more Americans allow themselves the opportunity to read through some of your insight. Well done!
3 - bliffle
Engrossing article with an interesting Point Of View. But a little long.
4 - Georgio
Adam ..It was a long article but I read it all and I agreed with most of it ..First of all I don't think you where fair to Hillary..after all she did get 18 million votes and she won the states that the Dems need to win in the general and O bama won states that we will not win in the general especialy the south..
I am from Chicago and have followed Obamas rise from the beginning..truth is he never would have even become the Democratic candidate to run for the ticket if his opponent who was 17 pts ahead of him didn't have a wife who went on TV and said he is a wife beater,,so Obama won the right to face the republican candidate who also was favored to win the election but can you believe it ..the repulican also had a scandle that did him in so one might say OBama became a Senator by pure luck..I would also say he beat Hillary with pure luck also because if the association he had with the reverend and others was known from the beginning he would not have gotten to first base .
I am a Democrate and will vote for him but I have serious problems with him ..In the beginning I liked him because of his message of hope and a new beginning that politics in Washington would change..But the longer the fight went on the more he sounded just like every other politician..
The black community backed him 94% and if that is not raceism in reverse than I have a bridge I want to sell to you..the GOP will exploit this because they will put doubts in minds of white voters because they are not worried about turning the blacks against them because they know they are not going to get thier votes anyway...
Adam I hope he can be the kind of President that will help this country but I see no chance at all unless Hillary is on the ticket and right now I don't see that happening.
5 - Baronius
Georgio, that's interesting because I can't see Obama winning with Clinton on the ticket. Second-guessing from Hillary, third-guessing from Bill, parallel organizations... it would be the worst thing for party unity. A party unifies under one leader, with no looking back.
Dave, I found the article interesting because it probably accurately reflects the views of people I disagree with. It's interesting to see facts (and opinions) used as building blocks to create something I'd never imagine. It doesn't make sense to me that someone could look at Obama and see coolness and character, but the truth is that some people do.
6 - Georgio
Baronius..the reason I say Hillary has to be on the ticket is because she won states that the Dems need to win ..Obama won states that the GOP will win in the general..any other VP that he picks could get him one or two states but this election will come down to Fl ,OH ,PA, Mich..Obama can't win these states without Hillary.
7 - Baronius
Georgio - I don't buy into this thinking that FL, OH, PA, and MI are wearing chastity belts that only Clinton can unlock. Clinton won two of those states because Obama didn't campaign in them. In Ohio, the GOP has made such fools of themselves that I can't imagine them voting for a Republican for a decade. That leaves Pennsylvania, the state of bitter gun-toting Bible-thumpers. They've got more problems with Obama than a running mate could solve.
8 - Rosalind Stanley
The problem in Haiti is HORRIBLE! At my job we are taking up what little donations we can, the problem is I just saw EX-president Bush say "Just send your CASH", BUT HE TOOK ALL THE CASH, WHY DOESN'T HE OPEN HIS large bank account,BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE MY MONEY IS....