Mar 23, 2006
Sam Osborne: The emperor has no clothes and no shame
With our country now mired in a fourth year of war in Iraq, George W. Bush's litany of excuses and justifications has left him sounding like a perpetual delinquent that thinks he can talk his way out of anything.
This President Bush set out to do something his father had failed to do, to forcefully remove Saddam Hussein from power. Intent on little more than showing daddy up, and fortified by the conviction that overwhelming power would let him get away with it, Bush sent the nations military forces into harms way.
With his military venture proving to be anything but a great success, the president now repeatedly spins out his broken-record mantra of justification; "The world is better off without Saddam Hussein." If Bush can find a silver lining in his manmade disaster, he could probably also look kindly on a natural one.
To wit, if a tsunami were to sweep up the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and get Saddam, but in the bargain also take the lives of thousands of Iraqis, kill over 2,000 of our troops, permanently maim untold more, seriously damages our nation's position of respect, and cost our people billions upon billions of dollars, could we expect George W. Bush to also find good in the tsunami and take credit for its course?
One way or another, it appears that George W. Bush will sidestep a basic question: Was war with Iraq our nations only course? The answer is no.
Brave presidents of the past chose a wiser course when faced with the march of world Communism from a Soviet Union bristling with very real weapons of mass destruction and with agents hidden throughout the world. They opted for containment of this massive threat until it inevitably fell of its own weight. These courageous Commanders in Chief really believed in the courage of our people and in the superiority of our free way of life.
Sam Osborne
Box 147
West Branch, IA 52358
(319) 643-5388
This President Bush set out to do something his father had failed to do, to forcefully remove Saddam Hussein from power. Intent on little more than showing daddy up, and fortified by the conviction that overwhelming power would let him get away with it, Bush sent the nations military forces into harms way.
With his military venture proving to be anything but a great success, the president now repeatedly spins out his broken-record mantra of justification; "The world is better off without Saddam Hussein." If Bush can find a silver lining in his manmade disaster, he could probably also look kindly on a natural one.
To wit, if a tsunami were to sweep up the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and get Saddam, but in the bargain also take the lives of thousands of Iraqis, kill over 2,000 of our troops, permanently maim untold more, seriously damages our nation's position of respect, and cost our people billions upon billions of dollars, could we expect George W. Bush to also find good in the tsunami and take credit for its course?
One way or another, it appears that George W. Bush will sidestep a basic question: Was war with Iraq our nations only course? The answer is no.
Brave presidents of the past chose a wiser course when faced with the march of world Communism from a Soviet Union bristling with very real weapons of mass destruction and with agents hidden throughout the world. They opted for containment of this massive threat until it inevitably fell of its own weight. These courageous Commanders in Chief really believed in the courage of our people and in the superiority of our free way of life.
Sam Osborne
Box 147
West Branch, IA 52358
(319) 643-5388