Suppose George Bush had been a good and courageous leader

Rose Siding

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sun Mar-19-06 02:03 AM
Original message

Suppose George Bush had been a good and courageous leader

Every now and then I consider how he is fully responsible for drying up an Absolutely Unprecedented River of goodwill and opportunity for our country.

I remember watching Studs Terkel on Donahue shortly after Bush's UN speech. Whenever I think of it, I feel almost frantic. He said that Bush should have told the UN that now was our chance. Now we were committed to returning all the bounty of worldwide sentiment expressed to us after Sept 11, that the US would pledge and spearhead a global drive to insure that every living person have access to clean water and food and education. That this would be our mission and we would open our arms to all who wanted to join us in the effort.

40 billion dollars is what it would cost, Studs said. I checked out some WHO numbers at the time and that was the most recent figure cited for global access to food and water.

Suppose he had pledged that much on our behalf. How long would the ovation have lasted? -To conquer terror with generosity and promise, to defeat suspicion and fear, to gain the trust and support of the very masses Bush's actions have driven away from us. To rip all power away from the violent fringe in that one golden moment of opportunity.

"You have mourned with us. Now join us, not in war but in a Renaissance of the human spirit. You have shared our tears. Now share with us the possibilities of a New Century"

He could have proposed a new age of women's rights and worker's rights in a hallelujah pass. What if he had been an exceptional person?

40 billion dollars. How much national security would that have been worth?

Then later on, when the convergence of circumstance was less eerily ideal but when we still could have shone with benevolence and honor: Afghanistan. Weeks after the Taleban fell, I saw reporters showing WTC footage to some villagers. They had never seen it, never heard of it. They didn't even know who we were. Even the TV they viewed it on was an oddity to them.

Instead of committing the full force of the US government into securing that country, instead of throwing our backs into giving them the first chance, Bush asked American school children to send him money and then started a whole new war.

He started a war.

MSNBC's Ashley Banfield safely broadcast interviews from the streets of Baghdad weeks before the invasion. With women. On the streets of Baghdad. With not a mercenary in sight. CNBC had a reporter out doing interviews there, too. She showed how small glassed of tea were sold from wooden carts that dotted the narrow streets. She explained that by custom, Iraqis never make visitors pay for their tea. They wouldn't permit her pay for the tea. They insisted on giving it to her. It was their custom. American women, safe on the streets of Baghdad drinking tea they had been given.

Now that the jig is up, one by one, the war cheerleaders are beginning to criticize Bush. They have to; it's becoming fashionable. Forgiveness isn't coming easily.

I'm feeling very morose tonight.