Once a Horse Thief..

When it comes time for our children to inherit the earth, shortly after they finish college, they're not going to ask us why we voted G. W. Bush into power. No. They're going to ask why we did so twice. I don't have an answer.

Have we forgotten the image prior to 9/11 of GWB with the Pope JP2? The Pope is holding his head in his hands and the caption say, "dear G-d, he's dumber than he looks." 9/11 didn't improve GW any, he was the President when it happened. He got to show what happens when the wrong person is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I'm not going to revisit 9/11 as it's too recent and too fresh a wound for many of us. Let it be sufficient to remind you that an Arab, the son of Bush family friends, the Bin Laden's, destroyed the symbols of American might - the twin towers, and the Pentagon, four commercial aircraft, thousands of people in the air and on the ground. And he did so for what for him was an ideal. His 'army' - a group of zealots armed with U.S. pilot school's training and a bag of box cutters.

In response, instead of going straight to Bin Laden's father and demanding justice be done within the family, or at the very least the country of his birth - Saudi Arabia, Bush fired up the war machine and began by strafing random tribal targets in Afghanistan; something we're still doing, with as much success - seven years later- as when it began. We were then duped into Iraq to finish off the work his father started.

As he ground his foot awkwardly into the dirt in embarrassment at the lack of WMDs, GW had an epiphany. Somebody, who for reasons of security and Middle East sensitivities must remain nameless, came to him in a dream. George was going to bring democracy to Iraq. Why hadn't he though of it sooner? He was going to shove democracy down each and every Iraqi's throat even if he had to kill 300,000 of them in the process. And he did; kill at least that many.

Six years and an estimated $3 trillion later, the Iraqi's are no more democratized than my four cats. General Franks demanded that no body counts be kept but we killed a lot more 'freeing the people' than Sadaam did 'oppressing' the same people. And we wonder why we're unpopular. We killed our own men and women; young idealists who thought they were doing what was right; an unforgivable waste. George and Dick also revealed the ugly face of American mercenaries' ala Blackwater and we got to see the vast war profiteering that goes with it.

You may think I'm being a bit harsh on Georgie-porgy and maybe I am. Consider this however. George Bush is a dry drunk. He quit drinking and drugs on his own or through finding JC but never received treatment. He never went through the humility of making amends or modified the destructive behaviors that go hand-in hand with the addictive personality. No, he winged it and the trail of his destructive behavior is plain to see. A sober horse thief is still a horse thief the saying goes.

His reward for his super-sized alcoholic ego was the presidency of the United States and all the power that the position brings. He has been accompanied by his Stepford wife Laura who supported and enabled him just as she did during his days of merriment. G-d bless her.

While he was off chasing ghosts in Iraq GW let our country fall apart economically ignoring repeated warnings that the end was neigh due to the undisciplined activities of roughshod bankers. Never fear though when they lost their money, he replaced it quickly from the public coffers, using a child-like but effective and well rehearsed tactic of imparting fear of not acting quickly, into the equation.

His four horsemen Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rove and Erik Prince have all gone to ground as the end draws near, not in fear but to reap the rewards that eight years of mayhem and obedience have brought; Bush pardoned them and himself in advance in the event of any post Bush-presidency repercussions. How nice. How thoughtful. How stupid are we to let him?

Despite all of this, Bin Laden who organized the attack with the box cutters is still alive, untouched, unfazed, still wealthy, and allegedly still ambles daily through the Alpine slopes of Afghanistan humming the wafting tones of 'the hills are alive with the sound of music.'