Prayer and Probability

Evaluating The Great Uniter
Bush The Lesser Is Found Wanting

“I am a uniter, not a divider, “so said George W. Bush in an election day 2000 op-ed in USA Today.

Yet yesterday with a speech given at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska he was anything but. In a policy shift first evident in his Veteran’s Day speech last Friday, he continued to step to the fore front of his administration’s attack on the truthful origins of the Bush-Iraq War. While it is always encouraging to see a leader out in front of his troops we shouldn’t give Mr. Bush too much credit. Attrition and desertion have left him little choice. Most of the big guns of the Republican Party have been rendered useless because they are either under indictment or cast under suspicion of unethical and illegal behavior. And those who aren’t are jumping overboard like rats off a sinking ship. He can’t even unite his own party.

The President and his Ship of State are being battered by a tumultuous sea of discontent, a sea blown into frenzy by four and a half years of his lying and deceit that have caught up with him. He is standing on the poop deck staring into the past trying to right his ship by waving the flag and standing on the Bible. He fails to understand that using flag and Bible for props only works for so long. Sooner or later there have to be substantive connections to a leader’s use of symbols. When there are none the people not only lose faith in the leader but in the symbols as well. These are causes of disunity not unity. Will the Bush Presidency come to be known as the Age of Polarization?

Until Bush accepts the truth about his war his longing to be a uniter will remain only a pipe dream held by the delusional few. In his speech yesterday he mentioned 9-11 seven times. He condemned Osama bin Laden, the perpetrator of 9-11, just one time. He named al Qaeda four times but one of those doesn’t count because he tripped over his tongue and repeated himself once. However he accused Saddam Hussein ten times and even condemned the Democrats five times.

Here is the first of the two themes in his speech, “When our nation was attacked on September the 11th… We had to take a hard look at every threat to America after September the 11th, and when we did, one stood apart: Saddam Hussein.”

Here is the second, “Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war, but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people.”

On further reflection perhaps I have misunderestimated the President. If he keeps making inane misstatements and lies like the above, surely it won’t be long before the whole country unites against him.

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To Make.