Video: Bush bids Bolton farewell

Send somebody to replace Bolton who has a minority’s social disadvantage or some physical disability. But who holds the same outlook as this departing fighter. And use the “victimological” approach of their opponents to win “sympathy” and the post.

If the President doesn’t get some new spines in positions of power fast, this razor-thin loss by his party will begin to look like the fallacious claim of the (by-the-skin-of-their-ballots) victors that it was some kind of “mandate” for a “major change”.

Bush has failed to talk directly and convincingly to the U.S. populace, on a continuing (Fireside Chat) basis since 9/11, in order to keep the people involved in our nation’s battle plans.

He never explained the nature of the global enemy in metaphorically comprehensible terms. And has failed to focus and re-focus on the urgent reasons for targeting beyond Bin Laden’s al Qaeda and the resurgent Taliban. And he has not clearly told his fellow citizens why we can no longer ignore Pakistani and Saudi terrorist-raising madrassas/schools. Nor has our leader given a national-historical rationale for why we must now face down the worldwide Islamic jihadist movement for our own survival.

It has all been too strident and shallow, and not fought with the rousing insouciance and gusto of a Churchill or FDR.

But then, you have to profoundly know what you’re fighting for and against- from being able to draw on Tom Paine and Patton for good quips to having the ability to refer Thermopylae or Bataan or Jim Jone’s death cult or Pol Pot’s “Year Zero“- to explain the threat we face as a Civilization and to inspire your neighbors to join you in defending it.

It would go a long way if he would pick someone to say something like:

“The Iraqis are suffering from what the abysmal power of religion can be corrupted to in the hands of always-fallible humans. We in America have been stunned and disappointed that many people in Iraq have chosen the vicious satisfaction of fratrical warfare, personal vendetta, and tribal revenge, all of which endangers their children, their nation, and their future through this orgy of irrational carnage and bloodlust. If their political and religious figures do not -or cannot- restrain these reprisals, then such leaders are silently aiding the terrorists who goad the Iraqi people by blowing up their mosques and their markets. We cannot make the Iraqis behave more humanely toward one another. That is their struggle. But we will make certain that their infighting does not spill over their borders. Meanwhile, the Iraqis, themselves, will have to rein in their own madmen. Their top people must face down this human tragedy, and stand up for basic decency and human compassion. A word that is central to their religious book’s message. Americans want the Iraqis to show the better angels of their nature. We have sacrified our blood and treasure to give you the chance to liberate yourselves. If the Iraqis choose to exterminate themselves instead, then it is ultimately the Iraqis who shall lose. We -and the other coalition members- can always go home. We cannot change their spirits. They must begin that fateful task, themselves, now. Or they risk becoming another Beirut or another Rwanda. We are loyal allies. We will help. But we will not squander our resources. Iraq must decide. The Iraqis are in our prayers. May the sword be removed from their hearts. And may they finally love their children enough to bury their hate. Instead of burying each other.”

Let Bush and his people speak, from now on, as human beings.

And let the Iraqis, who have become little more than a screaming cipher, answer this challenge.

It’s too late in this War for anything else.

profitsbeard on December 4, 2006 at 8:17 PM