You would think with all of the mayhem unfolding in the White House and in the broader Republican ranks that I would be jumping for joy. And you are right. But probably not for the reasons you think. Yes, I hate Bush. Yes, I think he has done serious fiscal and social damage to this country.
But here is the kicker, what he is really bad at is what people think he is best at. It's his national security decisions that trouble me the most. The worst one of late has been the non-response to the Pakistan quake. Osama bin Ladin, head of Al Qaeda, is located in Pakistan, we know that for a fact. Pakistan has a major quake. 76,000 are dead. And what is our response? $50M and some helicopters. We had a chance to really help these people and to turn them away from their popular support of Al Qaeda, and we blew it. Now, unfortunately, it's Al Qaeda helping these folks and that will only cement their hold on that country even further.
What I really want is for our government to take it's job seriously. (Not be run by a bunch of jackasses who don't even believe in government.) Our government should protect our national security not just by blowing people up, but by helping people to create a more peaceful world. Think I'm some liberal pacifist type? Nope. Rumsfeld agrees with me. War is only a tool. A means to an end. It's not the solution to every problem. In fact, it's often the worst solution of all.
We are a powerful country. We have a lot of people. We can afford a a number of mistakes in our national security policy. But with this mistaken invasion of Iraq, the mistakes in Afghanistan, the mistakes in Pakistan, and on past that, one has to wonder just how many mistakes we can afford before this President does more damage than Al Qaeda could ever hope to.
It could be argued that the relentless prosecutions of corruption dogging this administration are what's hampering their effectiveness. Frankly though, they were incompetent before all of this stuff, and they are only limited in their capacity to be actively incompetent now. What's worse, a stalled administration making no decisions, or an active one making really bad decisions? Bad choice either way. Best thing to do is to get the yokels out of office.
Posted by jherr at October 19, 2005 02:08 PMThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
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