Another Look : A better way forward
Posted on Friday, December 29, 2006
After the release of what has been called the Baker-Hamilton Report offered by the star-studded, bipartisan Iraq Study Group, his Excellency called a Dec. 20 morning press conference where he deigned to answer some questions from a gathering of journalists and reporters. To Bush’s dismay, the ISG and their report had been hyped for weeks as a possible means of nudging the president toward some objective clarity on the actual state of the situation in Iraq and the increasing trouble throughout the surrounding region — so the group and their report had already been given considerable media coverage. Because the report laid bare the failures of Bush & Company policies and performance, once again spin and damage control were the goals of the day.
ISG headliner James Baker, friend and advisor to Republican presidents — from the first unelected American president, Gerald Ford, to George Herbert Walker Bush — and the primary force in the dazzling election rescue requested by Pappy and Brother Jeb in the Floridian debacle of the 2000 election, this time faced an interesting twist. Investigating and reporting honestly on Iraq ran the risk of betraying the war profit interests of many other big-name investors. Those folks have done very well for themselves these last few years free of any real congressional oversight of military spending or related outcomes. Nonetheless, Baker seemed this time to have sided with the realitybased community over the neo-con delusionists propping the façade of Dubya’s manly presidency. To widespread but welcome surprise, their report went so far as to describe the state of Iraq as grave and deteriorating. Ouch !
The press conference that morning could have been a good time for W. to tuck tail and accept Daddy Bush’s helping hand one more time; he could have stepped up like a grown man who failed but learned invaluable lessons. It would have been a propitious time for a reckless American president to stand behind the podium in full view of the world press to admit the impossibility of remaking any nation in the image of peace, freedom, and democracy through bombing, military overthrow, occupation, and negligence. It could have been an honorable time to confess that his actual intentions for redirecting forces from Afghanistan to Iraq had nothing to do with freedom or democracy. No such catharsis came.
Bush’s remarks and responses that morning eliminated any doubts that he is determined to stay his tragic course. That was hardly news. The most interesting things he offered at that event came in his remarks referring to the nation currently in his sights and next on his “ Hey, look what I can do ! ” wish list. With irony usually reserved for classical tragedies, Bush intimated that the Iranian people can do better than be an isolated nation with a leader who constantly sends messages to the world that their country is out of step with the majority of thinkers to the detriment of the Iranian people. To the amazement of millions of onlookers, he betrayed no hint of recognition that he actually had just described the U. S. and his own presidency.
He continued by saying that Iran is a “ nation with a fantastic history and tradition” that could do better than have a leader who is “ willing to say things that really hurts his country … ” The parallels were uncanny, but he didn’t stop there. “ My message to the Iranian people is, you can do better than to have somebody try to rewrite history. You can do better than somebody who hasn’t strengthened your economy. ” By then it was clear that he was completely oblivious to the humor in the irony that waxed reminiscent of Jeremiah as he concluded with, “ and you can do better than having somebody who’s trying to develop a nuclear weapon that the world believes you shouldn’t have. There’s a better way forward. ”
He was absolutely right. There must be a better way forward. To continue under an administration completely divorced from the realization that they hold their high offices only to serve the people by protecting and fulfilling the Constitution would be an utter travesty. The incoming new majority must undertake the investigations and prosecutions for which they were elected. Prematurely playing nice in the interest of nurturing some national version of Norman Rockwell “ family peace” would make the Democrats party to the elimination of the basic traditions and institutions that have allowed the American Experiment to survive thus far. President Gerry Ford died Tuesday evening; we owe it to our children and their children to bury the precedent of presidential pardon of a criminal president with him.
••• Scott Sullivan writes a monthly column for The Benton County Daily Record. He may be reached at sksully 7698 @ hughes. net.
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