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05/20/2003 Archived Entry: "'This is not what the White House wanted...'"
'This is not what the White House wanted...'
Hard as I try, I keep getting this nagging thought that this is exactly what the White House wanted. Nobody could be this completely incompetent on purpose, could they?
This is not what the White House wanted as President Bush starts pointing toward next year's election campaign. Iraq is in a state of near anarchy. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is escalating again, and Islamic terrorists are on the attack in the Middle East. Just at the moment when Mr. Bush would like the nation to think of him as a statesman, everything seems to be going the wrong way in one of the world's most combustible regions. Mr. Bush has himself to blame in part.Iraq is a mess because the Bush administration failed to plan adequately for the postwar period. The Pentagon has proved itself great at fighting wars but not very good at dealing with their aftermath. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his aides seemed to think that Iraq would emerge from the war as a functioning country that could then be led toward democracy by American officials. Now, more than a month after the fighting subsided, Iraq remains a lawless land without basic services like electricity, fresh water and decent medical care. Instead of serving as a model for enlightened American rule, Iraq is turning into a symbol of American maladministration.
Replies: 5 people speak up
i got 3 theories
They finally ran Ari through a focus group. Being as tone deaf as they are, it took a focus group to tell them that he's coming off as a pompous boob. And since they already have a token Boob in the whitehouse, Ari had to go.
Ari couldn't take the abuse anymore (one too many toilet dunking from the Boob). He got sick of all the ridicule he was getting for being such a hack and a sycophant, even from fellow republicans. Nobody respects a suck-up.
Turns out Ari is French.
Posted by niner @ 05/20/2003 09:13 AM NY
Okay, let's review the data, shall we?
(1) the meltdown of post-war Iraq
(2) the increasing number and ferocity of terrorist attacks
(3) growing anti-American sentiment abroad
(4) alienation of traditional US allies
(5) increased unemployment
(6) a lack-luster stock market
(7) a declining dollar
(8) record-breaking trade deficits
(9) growing budget deficits
(10) an executive who cannot speak coherent English
So can someone please tell me why our Presidential Cartoon has a popularity rating of 65%-75%. Am I missing something here? Has the government put a brain-deadening chemical substance in the water supply?
Someone please tell me I'm dead and that this is Purgatory!
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 05/20/2003 11:02 AM NY
I've got to steal a comment I read somewhere in the blogosphere recently: if Osama Bin Laden had an aircraft carrier, he would land on it and declare victory; in his wildest dreams he didn't think 911 could cause the US to create for itself the mess we now find ourselves. (Met.99--you forgot to list the ramifications of that wonderful Patriot Act).
Posted by TonyB @ 05/20/2003 11:19 AM NY
TonyB,
I was trying to keep that list down to 10 items, but you're right. So:
(11) the curtailment of civil rights by a born-again, Bible-thumping Christian fundamentalist
This list could become a major project.
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 05/20/2003 01:32 PM NY
Keep in mind that Israel is an artificial political entity imposed on Palestine by Britain and France, with the complicity of the League of Nations, in the collapse of the Ottomans. Harry Truman and the UN blessed it and it has been kept in existence by U.S. arms ever since. Creating chaos in the Arab world is precisely what the DOD apologists wanted because it perpetuates Hamas and other resistance fighters and thus gives Sharon an excuse to reject a two-state solution. To be fair, of course, the Palestinians rejected a two-state solution even before 1948.
Posted by Joe @ 05/20/2003 05:07 PM NY
