Blunderbus(h)s

You must have noticed, Bush, in recent days, how the word "blunder" has been appearing more and more frequently in association with your name. It occurred to me to google the two together, and I have to tell you that I came up with 299,000 hits in less than half a second. Which might be funny if you were a slapstick comedian, but no, you happen to be President of the United States; or, as we're all too often reminded, the most powerful man in the world.

A blunder is not simply an action with which I happen to disagree. My trusty old Oxford English Dictionary defines it as follows: "1) Confusion, clamour. 2) A gross mistake." The verb, to blunder, is "to move blindly or stupidly; to flounder, stumble… to utter thoughtlessly… to mismanage…" A "blunderbus(h)s," by the way, is "A short gun with a large bore, firing many slugs, and doing execution at a short range without exact aim. [No longer used in civilized countries]." No kidding! Also, "A blustering, noisy talker." Ah, well. Those Brits, they really know how to get down with their language, Bush! So, given that definition, a partial list of your own blunders, relating only and specifically to your "war on terror" and your war in Iraq might include:

failing to listen to pre-9/11 intelligence;
deflecting the war on terror from Afghanistan and the Pakistani border to Iraq, allowing Bin Laden and top henchmen to escape into the mountains and now, months later, allowing the Taliban to rebuild their strength and influence;
believing (or not) in a direct connection between Iraq and the 9/11 attack, and using it anyway as an excuse to go to war;
believing (or not) in your Chalabi and his fellow exiles, with their axes to grind, and acting on their advice and information;
believing (or not) in “weapons of mass destruction," and using them anyway as an excuse to go to war;
invading a sovereign state, no matter how “evil,” on the basis of intelligence which you knew to be flawed;
invading a country that in no way threatened the USA;
ignoring the good advice of at least one of your generals regarding troop strength;
trusting your Rumsfeld;
trusting your Cheney;
trusting your Rice and your Wolfowitz;
invading a sovereign state despite international dismay and condemnation;
invading Iraq with insufficient troop strength;
failing to recognize this inadequacy in the first days of the occupation, and thus failing to protect the country's infrastructure;
failing to protect vast arsenals of arms and ammunition from marauders and future insurgents;
failing to accept your Rumsfeld's resignation;
absurdly claiming victory in advance of months of escalating violence and death (“Mission Accomplished,” remember?);
failing to capitalize on the strength of a pre-existing Iraqi army in your eagerness to de-Baathify;
trusting your Chalabi to set up a government;
failing to understand the diversity of Iraqi culture and Iraqi people and their passions;
failing to provide your army with adequate armor to protect them;
changing your story every time you're asked about the reason for your war, making yourself look foolish and inconsistent, and giving support to those who charge that the war is being fought for reasons you have not yet acknowledged (like, perhaps, oil???):
insisting on absurdly disproportionate tax cuts for the wealthy during a time of war;
insisting on rosy versions of success when all anyone can see is disastrous failure;
grinning like an embarrassed jackal when speaking of the dead and injured;
underestimating (wildly) the strength and determination of the resistence to your occupation;
overestimating the appeal of "democracy" in a country that has never known it, and your ability to transplant it into unprepared soil;
inability to admit to, let alone learn from your mistakes…

Well, Blunderbush. Enough for now. And that’s not even beginning to consider blunders on other fronts, at home and abroad. Like Kyoto. Global warming. Social security. Not to mention your felicitous turns of phrase. Ah, well... again! But anyway, enough to give us pause…