THE GOOD AND EVIL OF THE BUSH MIND

The defining moment of George Bush’s life was after we were attacked on September 11, 2001. This was the glory of Bush. He has cited these attacks as a reason for everything he has wanted to do.

He has used it as the reason for creating Homeland Security and the Patriot Act and the taking of many of our freedoms. In all of his speeches, the theme is the same: the terrorists are out there and the terrorists are going to get us -- unless we get them first. In his last two speeches, he cited these attacks 5 times in his VFW speech and 4 times in the Idaho speech. His speeches always tell of overwhelming threats. We are a world embroiled in the first war of the 21st century – war, a word that peppers every statement he makes.

In the vision of Bush, we are fighting a war between two clear-cut sides – one good and one evil. This is a war where there are only two choices – you are either for Good or you are for Evil -- there is no middle ground.

In the President's world, there is just them, the enemy, aka the terrorists, and us, the people who spread freedom to the rest of the world. While the terrorists skulk in the shadows, we spread freedom and freedom is no passive thing. It confronts, defeats, prevails, and conquers.

This has worked for him (ever since he finally got out of his chair at that school after hearing of the 9/11 tragedy and then quit flitting around the country in Air Force One) and he is not about to drop it.

But it seems that many Americans are no longer seeing the world as Bush is seeing it. They are beginning to ask questions. But this doesn’t affect Bush’s vision.

He doesn’t see the problems in Iraq. He doesn’t see that the country is lacking electricity, oil, jobs, a constitution and now has an Islamic government that is more allied to Iran than to America. These details don’t matter to our president and his one-track mind.

He will stay the course no matter where it takes us.

The California Curmudgeon