Maxim October 2004

Mr. President - You're Fired

Reasonable people may disagree over reasonable politics. I am a registered independent and I have voted faithfully in every election for candidates regardless of party affiliation. I've voted for Republicans, Democrats and third-party people. I defy anyone to reasonably place my political beliefs on some artificial left-to-right spectrum. In short, I think for myself. And I'd like to think most other people do.

But just because I'd like to think so, it doesn't make it so. It is a curiosity to me that the current presidential election is even close. We have an incumbent president - and this is clearly a referendum on his performance.

Given his record, I've got to invoke Donald Trump's most famous words - "You're fired."
Putting aside all the social issues, the economy, trade policy, immigration policy, homeland security - and a myriad of other complaints I have about the status quo - let's just look at foreign policy. Specifically, Iraq. No, it's not a "War on Terror." Look at our previous "wars on" - the War on Poverty - the War on Drugs. If the War on Terror goes anything like those wars, then we are really doomed. Let's call it what it is. It's a war in Iraq.

And George W. Bush lied to us to get us into this mess. First linking Iraq to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (a lie,) then linking Iraq to weapons of mass destruction (a lie), then citing our invasion as a liberation of oppressed people (as if we ever do that in any oil-poor countries.) Now over a thousand Americans have died and many thousands of Iraqis have died - and now we have no idea how we will ever stop getting killed over there. But we broke it, so we bought it. Billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and untold amounts of squandered international good-will later, we'll figure it out. But for that, and for all the lies, and for refusing to even admit it was a mistake - for just that, Mr. Bush - you're fired.

Let's not mince words. "Deception" is too weak. George W. Bush is a liar. He is an arrogant, unrepentant ideologue who deliberately deceives his electorate and refuses to admit - or even learn from - his mistakes.

His refusal to budge from a rigid, right-wing ideology has led him to forbid any dissent and ignore warnings that may conflict with his assumptions about Iraq, tax cuts and other policy issues.
Bush's so-called leadership is beyond incompetence - it is recklessness that risks the safety and security of the American people. He lied to the American people about the reasons for invading Iraq, and as a result, he has created a hornet's nest of insurgent terrorists and fueled the flames of hostility against the United States among Islamic people.

Evidence from the 9/11 Commission shows the invasion of Iraq was Bush's first choice rather than his last. When Richard Clarke, the president's designated expert on terrorism, repeatedly warned of an impending terrorist attack, he was ignored.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bush ordered Richard Clarke to link the attack to Iraq. When Clarke said there was no linkage between the attack and Iraq, Bush fired the memo back with the words "wrong answer." Bush and his Cabinet purposely created the false impression that Saddam Hussein was linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network and that the Iraqi leader was somehow to blame for the attacks - a notion that 70 percent of the public once believed, according to polls.

Bush was never interested in truth. He was interested in picking a fight with Iraq. It as not an unfortunate misreading of the available evidence, causing a mistaken linkage between Iraq and al-Qaida. This was a willful choice to make a specific linkage whether evidence existed or not.

The essential cruelty of Bush's game is that he takes an astonishingly selfish and greedy collection of economic and political proposals and then cloaks them with a phony moral authority, thus misleading many Americans who have a deep and genuine desire to do good in the world. And in the process, he convinces them to lend unquestioning support for proposals that actually hurt their families and their communities.

Bush has stolen the symbolism and body language of religion and used it to disguise the most radical effort in American history to take what rightfully belongs to the American people and give as much of it as possible to the already wealthy and privileged.

And this is the thing that confounds me about reasonable people even considering allowing Mr. Bush to continue to mislead the American people. I can only conclude that Bush supporters are either so wealthy and greedy that they are willing to overlook his incompetence in hopes of collecting bigger tax cuts, or they are simply stupid.