Leadership

It all seems so unplanned, somehow, Bush. This latest dis-appointment--the Goss resignation as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency--comes not out of any sense of strategic forethought on the part of some intelligent master-mind behind all actions, but rather out of a kind of seat-of-the-pants contingency flight plan that constantly re-acts to events that have not turned out as expected or desired.

I'd like to believe in a confident hand that makes the moves on this huge, complex chess-board of a planet that we live on, with some coherent sense of the big picture and of the short- and long-term consequences of each move.

But I don't Bush. It occurs to me that you believe that a rigorous, inflexible ideology is in itself enough to guarantee successful outcomes, and that the means will be miraculously taken care of if the ends are clear. You have been provided on any number of fronts with very ample proof that this is not the case; that foresight and forethought are called for in national and world affairs. And yet it seems that you have chosen to ignore the lessons you are constantly being offered by ever more negative results, and to revert each time, instead, to a blind faith that your complacent core beliefs will see you through.

No matter what you choose to call it, this is not leadership, Bush. The impression created by this latest episode in your embattled and uncertain tenure is that you are floundering in waters too deep and dark for you to even comprehend, let alone navigate with the kind of strength and vision that we need.

It's a bleak moment in our history, and it's getting bleaker by the day. I fear for our country. I fear for our world. I fear for our children and their future. If you're not capable of standing up to the task, Bush, I very much fear you should stand down.