Remember Osama

Good afternoon, Bush. Nauseated from state-of-the-union platitudes (don't worry, Clinton served up equal amounts) I've been scouring the web for some meaningful debate about how to salvage our rotting foreign policy.

I wound up, as I often do, at the Rockridge Institute site, lapping up George Lakoff's words with abandon.

Several months ago,Lakoff penned an article that merits continual rediscovery. For once prioritizing the substance of the issues rather than their "framing," Lakoff lays out convincing reasons why the country is headed in the wrong direction, and why so many Americans see it that way, too.

Lakoff reminds us that the Iraq invasion was detrimental to our response to 9/11, for reasons that by now are clear to most of us: Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and the death and destruction resulting from the invasion increased the effectiveness of Osama bin Laden's anti-Americanism.

Next, Lakoff insists that the concept of a "War on Terror" naturally drives us toward such ineffective invasions, rather than the international police and spy work that leads to the capture of terrorists and the dismantling of their organizations. He also notes that the "war on terror" was actually extremely effective in it's true aims - providing a boost to the seemingly-inexorable process of rich becoming richer.

The country is clearly fed up with the war. The majority of us wish the whole conflict had never started. And yet, Democrats still seem to be talking about Iraq and nothing but Iraq. It's time - as Lakoff would have us do - to return to a national debate about the proper response to terrorism. Yes, we clearly need to find a face-saving and life-saving solution to the growing chaos in Iraq. But that cannot be the only focus of our foreign policy. Instead of non-binding resolutions about troop-levels, I suggest a repeal of the Patriot Act and the advancement of a brand new approach to terror, based upon traditional policework AND (my ever-elusive holy grail) the pursuit of detente between the United States and the Arab world.

George Lakoff, meet Barack Obama. The two of you should talk. Meanwhile, Bush, I suggest you put your ear to the door and wait for that new strategy you've been supposedly looking for these past couple of months.

Barack the Vote, Bush

Posted by Cardozo


Top 3 reasons George W. Bush should vote for Barak Obama in 2008

1. You believe in "Compassionate Conservatism"
You once said, Bush: “It is compassionate to actively help our fellow citizens in need. It is conservative to insist on responsibility and results.” After the calamities in Katrina and Iraq - and considering that you’ve relied wholly on trickle-down economics to help people out of poverty and reduce the ranks of the uninsured – it’s clear that the contract of compassionate conservatism has been broken. For six years, who monitored your administration’s “responsibility and results?”

Compassion is just a word for you, Bush, so how about lending your support to someone like Obama, who spent years (through a church group, no less!) directly assisting the poor and disenfranchised in Chicago, and who is currently on the forefront of the push to demand ethics reform in congress?

2. You want U.S. citizens to be safe
It is well documented, Bush, that you spent a long time (seven minutes, at the very least) deliberating about the best way to respond to the 9/11 attacks. Now, nearly four years into Gulf War #2, more Americans have been killed on the battlefield of Iraq than were killed in the 9/11 attacks, and anti-American sentiment, by virtually all accounts, has risen.

I believe that you do want your fellow U.S. citizens to be safe from attack. So why not vote for Obama, who opposed the war from the very beginning, preferring a narrower focus on the actual perpetrators of the crime?

3. You believe in public service
But do you serve the public? You were born into wealth and never left it. You became a businessman. You owned a baseball team. I think it’s fair to say that you embody (and can only truly hope to represent) the interests of the wealthy.

Your vote for Barack Obama would put someone in the oval office with the capacity to understand where virtually all Americans are coming from. He knows of poverty and discrimination – both personally and professionally. And now, as an established public servant, he has reaped the rewards of the hard work and responsibility that you so admire.

Can you acknowledge that such a man might be better equipped to serve the public as its chief executive? If so, no one will have to know. Our ballots are still secret, aren’t they Bush?

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2008 election, bush, george w bush, iraq, Obama, president