Don the Dissembler

Remember Donald Rumsfeld's quote about the "unknown unknowns"?

Yes, that was a good one. That guy has big balls to be able to pull that kind of verbal stunt. It's like trying to parse the word "is".

I had written a long post on this topic, but Blogger ate it. So for a strange reason, I'm no longer interested in Don the Dissembler or the "unknown unknowns". But I sure do resent leaders who are so arrogant that they think they can get away with cheap word games and charisma.

And it reminds me that Bush has the same flaw, thinking he can get away with nearly anything, all the way up to flat out lies. The Bush administration has mangled political rhetoric to the point where we no longer expect truthful statements from leadership at all. We expect merely the image of leadership.

Tragic, indeed.

I think back to early 2001, when everyone in America started to realize that Bush was a few bricks short. Jesus, what's with this guy?!? I mean, the other guy was a bit of a dork, but THIS guy...THIS guy is worse than Quayle on camera! WAY worse. And that is terrifying.

And then September 11th came. And we waited for the President to show leadership. He showed up late. Really late. And people didn't know what to make of that. It was pretty scary to be "under attack" and not have a strong leader rallying the troops.

And after a while, people got behind the President, because, well, we had to. We wanted to. It seemed like the right thing to do. The country was hurting, and so were millions of people. Everyone in North America was reeling. Everyone. I imagine in fact everyone in the world was reeling. We would follow George Bush into Afghanistan, even though some of the things he was saying seemed a bit ominous-- "with us or with the terrorists", "will not differentiate between the terrorists and the states that harbour them" etc. At the time, it was well known that these statements were to bring Iraq into the debate. Or more precisely, to bring Afghanistan into the debate, as a "state supporting terrorists", which would then set a precedent for Iraq, which at a stretch might be made into a similar situation in Americans' minds. Everyone knew the Bush administration wanted into Iraq.

We knew that 9/11 was an excuse. We knew that. It was being argued as such before the war started, in fact as soon as rumous of Iraq being targeted started to circulate. The story hasn't changed at all since then.

But nonetheless, the Bushes got away with it. Bush might still get impeached, but he'll still get pardoned. And he'll have more money than God by then, with lots of rich and grateful friends to boot. After a few years, his record will have been sanitized and worked over by his people so he'll be popular again. It's sick and it's sad. But thankfully it will be over someday, and we'll be able to look at these days for what they really were, and not throw our hands up in frustration, but talk openly and honestly about who we are, and how we allowed ourselves to become entranced by fear, greed, and power.