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President George W. Bush has so many fantasies that
they’re even affecting the first lady’s grasp of reality. Laura Bush recently castigated the media for not
reporting that “many parts of Iraq are stable now,” then added,
“but, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day
that discourages everyone.”
Gosh, should we tell her? Yes, let’s. There are
some 185 attacks in Iraq every day, Laura. At least 3,000 Iraqi civilians
have died in these attacks this year alone. Seventy-three U.S. soldiers
died just in the month of February.
But, for flights of fantasy, no one is in George
W.’s league. On Presidents’ Day, he ventured out for a photo op
at Mount Vernon, where he stood at the grave of George Washington. There,
in a jaw-dropping moment of raw megalomania, Bush compared
Washington’s principled resolve during the Revolutionary War to his
own intransigent stupidity in Iraq! “In the end,” said Bush,
“Gen. Washington understood that the Revolutionary War was a test of
wills, and his will was unbreakable,” slyly implying that if Big
George were alive today, he would side with Little George’s mulish
insistence on battling those uppity insurgents in Iraq’s civil war. Gosh, should we tell him? Yes, let’s.
Washington and the soldiers of the Revolution were the insurgents, George.
They were battling an arrogant and bumbling empire from afar that was
occupying their land. And guess what? The insurgents won! While we’re at it, let’s tell George W.
another thing: It was Big George who believed that executive power should
be strictly limited by checks and balances, with Congress and the judiciary
equal to the presidency. Bush keeps saying that the public’s disapproval
doesn’t faze him, because history will be his judge. On that, he and
I agree.
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator,
columnist, and author.
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2007.
