A Government of the People?
So the Bush administration's approval ratings are pretty much as low as they can go. Depending on the poll you read, somewhere around 65% of the American people are unhappy with the job they are doing, do not approve of the Iraq debacle and are unhappy with the direction the country is heading. When asked about these numbers, Bush said essentially that he didn't care. He said that America wanted strong leadership, and a strong and determined leader would not change his beliefs because of the polls:"I think the American people — I know the American people want somebody to stand on principle, decide, make decisions and stand by them, and to lead this world toward a more peaceful tomorrow."
Now, I have a little more mixed feelings about this than you might imagine. On the one hand, since he's clearly the worst president in history and his administration is clearly incompetent, he should pay attention to the people at whose behest he leads and try to be a little more responsive to their wants, needs and desires. On the other hand, however, he is actually correct in his statement that a strong, courageous, independent leader would not change strategies due to polling data. For example, we know that a majority of people in the south were quite happy with Jim Crowe and "Separate but Equal" in the 1950s, and would have been unhappy with the president's performance in invoking federal law to integrate schools, for example. Here was a very clear case of a president making a distinctly unpopular decision and not allowing the fact that a lot of people disagreed with it to cause him to change it.
I guess my ambivilence about this issue indicates that a single hard-and-fast rule is not going to be the most effective way to approach it. It seems that its a situation that calls for some common sense. Take Iraq, for example. If there ever was a situation that cried out for a reassessment, a situation where "stay the course" was the worst possible solution, Iraq is it. The Iraqi people are suffering, Americans are dying, the cost in wealth and prestige is immense and the world is actually less safe as a result of this illegal, foolhardy and doomed invasion. Anyone with a modicum of good sense would look at it and say, "hmmm, my intentions were good and I really thought this was the right thing to do, but it's clearly not going to work out, I guess we better figure out what Plan B looks like". And according to the polling data, the American people would very much like him to do exactly that.
It seems that there is more than just a commitment to his beliefs working in George Bush. It seems that there is pride, hubris, arrogance and a bull headed stubbornness that contribute to his unwillingness to reconsider and adjust his actions. I recall in the Presidential debates Bush was asked what his biggest mistake was and you know what? He couldn't think of a single mistake he'd made! This is not the kind of thoughtful, flexible, capable person we want in our leadership role. This type of rigid idealogue is, predictably, going to produce results like we saw in Katrina, Iraq, Harriet Miers and Dubai Ports World.
And at the end of the day, if this truly is a Government "Of the People, By the People and For the People" then what the people want should be a major consideration when the elected leadership makes a decision to go in a particular direction. In spite of the Rove-Inspired fear mongering, most people do NOT want their civil rights reduced or taken away. In spite of the shrill declarations of the Christian Taliban Right Wing, most people feel that access to abortion is a good thing for people and families. And in spite of Dick Cheney's hubris-driven personal opinions, most people feel that the leadership should be required to obey the laws of the land, as that's what we mean when we say "the Rule of Law". It's time for this administration to be responsive to more than just their corporate paymasters and political ideologues, and begin to extract this nation from the Iraq quagmire of their creation, not even just because it's clearly the right thing to do, but because it's what the American people want...
posted by mikey @ 11:19 AM
3 Comments:
While I agree with most of the things you are saying in this post. I would like to point out one significant factor here. American foreign policy over the past 30+ years has seen us get into fights, start fights and once the fight starts to get out of hand we run and leave the poor sap to wallow in the ruins we have created for them. Now, I'm not saying we should even be in Iraq at this point (or ever), but we need to come up with a better plan than to just quit the situation. We should lay the ground work for the only situation that would ever work and that's the breakup of Iraq into 3 separate states. If the Iraqi's think we're crazy, then we can at least say we tried to give them some options before we cut out, but leaving without even saying goodbye is just asking for more anti-Americanism. Unfortunately this administration doesn’t have the capacity or want to give the Iraqi’s what’s best for them so this is a situation that is untenable. I guess it will be another foreign policy debacle which will make us look even more ineffective than we already do.
Two points here. First, there's an old gambling expression that says you never throw good money after bad. That means, when the game is lost, fold your cards and get out. Point here is we have to put America's interest in front of Iraq's. Yes, we should never have invaded their country and we fucked it up all the way to hell. Sorry, but NOT ONE MORE LIFE! NOT ONE MORE DOLLAR! Let's get the hell out now, sorry guys, you're on your own.
Point number two is, just what is this theory that our presence there is somehow doing something good? I mean, everybody says, "Oh, we must stay in Iraq until it has a stable government and the chaos has subsided". Ok. But since it's pretty obvious that our military occupation is actually CAUSING the violence and chaos, and it's becoming very clear that there will NEVER be a stable Iraqi government as long as they are under American Military Occupation, perhaps we've been operating under an invalid premise. I propose that the BEST thing we could do for both America and Iraq is pull out our troops now--all of them, and quickly.
But even if this turns out to be a faulty analysis, I'm sorry, it's time for America to admit we don't belong there and get the hell out before another American boy dies or gets all fucked up.
Ok, I don't disagree with the want to get the hell out of dodge. We still need to show that we at least gave some ideas on how to save their collective asses before they completely melt down. The only way for that to happen is for them to get over this obsurd idea of having 1 Iraq. And while we are giving them some wonderful food for thought, get them to graciously ask us to leave. By doing these two fairly simple steps, we get out of Iraq and we also get to say we did our best (whatever that was) and we save whatever face we have left with the rest of the world.
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