It Never Happened

An examination of possible Republican directions as we move toward the 2008 election leads me to conclude that the Iraq War – as I understood it – was nothing but a figment of my overactive imagination. In checking my mirror for signs that I might have morphed into a cockroach but finding only the usual gray stubble, I wondered, could it have been that it was only a nightmare? But the morning paper still reports that our troops are being blown to bits, but it is equally clear that only George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Don Rumsfeld got the troops into harms way.

The neoconservatives were obviously betrayed by the big three. Rummy never followed the script of sending in enough troops or setting up a real national democracy. It’s obvious from a review of the Doug Feith conspiracy papers (on which the Cheney charges of treason against those of us opposed to the fiasco were based) stating that there was an al Qaeda operative in every Baathist office in Baghdad, so we should have had enough troops to arrest every government employee in the country. Never happened.

The real conservatives said all along that the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force was not followed, so we can’t blame them. Never happened.

The evangelicals were merely supporting the president in pursuing a war of values. How can you doubt that there were a whole heck of a lot of evil people in Iraq and killing a million of them and letting God sort them out was very good thing, so we can’t blame the evangelicals; there really were lions eating the good folks. Never happened.

Obviously, no Republicans – other than Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld – are responsible for what happened, so now that our sinuses have been cleared by last month’s, why can’t we just move on?

Sure, almost all of the Republicans – and a lot of wimpy Democrats - voted to let Bush handle Saddam, but, like I said, they thought he’d do it right. And he didn’t, so how can we hold them responsible? Never happened.

Damn, they reduced my taxes by sixty bucks and up to a thou on the rest of you in the middle class. Why can’t you thank them? Real wages fell, but, hell, the economy’s growing and we should be cheering as the stars like the Waltons pocket their billions. In the Great Depression when we were all broke and out of work, didn’t we love it when the silver screen showed the winners? Why can’t we just cheer The Donald and make him our surrogate in the winner’s circle?

Looks to me like I’m a bad sport; instead of saying we’ve got punish those people who enabled all these fiascos, I should be looking beyond Bush and giving the Republicans the benefit of the doubt in 2008. They are not going to nominate a guy named Bush. Heck, Jeb may not run for eight years now. You know they’re the party of small government and reduced spending. If it hadn’t been for George Bush, you’d have seen. They’re the party of the little guy; golly, if you’re a small farmer worth only eight or ten million bucks and being subsidized by the Department of Agriculture, they’re all for you and your family. Can’t we just let bygones be bygones?

It was Bush – and Cheney and Rumsfeld – who did it. Don’t blame us; we’ve got some small government candidates we want you to consider in ’08, and we’ll build you a bridge to nowhere while we’re at it.

Maybe I was dreaming. Maybe all those people who six months ago were calling us cutters and runners and who have now turned on Bush really weren’t responsible for any of this mess. Right! Never happened.

Blog on!

Wild Bill