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Bush's Deceptions

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Paul Ryan

There are a few thoughts that come to my mind regarding the Administration's deceptions in the lead-up to the Iraq war:

When does self-deception become culpable? At what point does the unwillingness to process factual information that is contrary to one's beliefs become a moral shortcoming? We are told that Bush did not lie because he thought what he was saying is true. Even if that were so, does it not point to deficient judgment, to nothing less than moral incompetence?!

Clearly one reason why Bush is popular is that 9/11 scared people shitless. When people are scared, they gravitate around leaders who promise to take responsibility for their safety -- which is what Bush did. In 2002, Bush and the Republicans literally ran on the notion that electing Democrats would jeopardize our safety. That is why Bush is in a sling right now. It turns out that he is no less a buck-passing weasel than any other politician. He is not taking ownership of anything -- he is simply covering his ass.

Bush said yesterday: "As long as I hold this office I will never risk the lives of American citizens by assuming the good will of dangerous enemies." Naively depending upon the good will of dangerous enemies is one way leaders fail to discharge their responsibilities, but there are other ways that a leader can needlessly risk the lives of his countrymen. And all across the globe, Bush's carrot and stick approach to the other nations of the world has been quite unsurpassed in finding those ways. It seems quite alien to the Administration that people from other lands may be motivated by such sentiments such as patriotism and justice. Their logic seems to be: why should someone from a shithole country have a soul? We'll just bribe them here, bully them there, because we're no one's fool.

Dems win the next election by dealing successfully with the national security issue. This requires, positively, the ability to articulate a vision of good guy nations to rounding-up a posse and going after the terrorists -- as opposed to the "go it alone" Republican approach. It also requires, negatively, the willingness to challenge Bush's competence and integrity. People vote out "failed" Presidencies. On the domestic side, his failures are obvious. It ultimately comes down, I believe, to his unreliability -- Bush and his cronies cannot be trusted with high office because, not unlike the enemies of freedom, they are fundamentalists, and this fundamentalism generates a set of conceits and biases that even the truth itself cannot overcome.

There is a darkness of the soul that overtakes the person who filters all data through an ideology because no ideology is big enough and real enough and complex enough for the truth. In an odd way, it is Bush and the Republicans who have become the moral relativists -- holding their enemies to high standards while holding themselves to the standards of their enemies. That is not the thinking that defends civilization. It is just more barbarism, more of the uninteresting and simplistic nonsense that denotes humanity at its baser level. The question facing Americans is do we want our country to participate in civilization or shall we simply lead the world into a deeper cycle of lawlessness and savagery?

Ultimately, it comes down to whether our morality is rational or simply religious. The former is objective, secular, apt, civilized -- one might say, "absolute." The latter is just more of the same old bullshit, sometimes better, sometimes worse, always second-rate; useful in its place, perhaps, but in the macro, tending to rend, rather than mend, civilization.

Thanks for listening.

Paul Ryan

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY