Who could blame President George W. Bush if he, like the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes, started searching for an honest man? After all the sage of Midland, Texas has certainly been lied to often enough about this bully war which was promised as a “walk in the park.”
Diogenes carried a lamp to help him gaze into the eyes of his fellow Athenians. There is no evidence that Bush used even a flashlight to help him judge the veracity of the cabal of neoconservatives who have taken over his war policy.
“We will be welcomed with open arms,” predicted Donald Rumsfeld.
“Whole divisions, entire cities will surrender without a shot,” echoed Dick Cheney
“It’ll be a short war, lasting no longer than a commuter’s drive to the office,” shouted Paul Wolfowitz.
“The victory parade in Baghdad will make Paris on VE Day look tame,” bragged Richard Perle.
We now know this is not going to be a six-day war. Amazingly, these Iraqis don’t want to be “liberated” by the United States. Bush’s cabal is shocked by Iraqi guerrilla tactics and calls them unfair. It is reminiscent of the British 225 years ago, complaining that the Yanks shot from behind trees and didn’t stand in a row and fight the way the Redcoats did.
The president himself has been like a chameleon in trying to explain the reasons for this attack on Iraq. First it was to bring democracy and freedom, then it was regime change, then to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, then disarmament, and so on.
If disarmament was really the reason for this war, then the British and American forces would need to be in Iraq only a few months after the war to seek out and destroy the weapons and go home. However it looks like “regime change” and redrawing the map of the Mideast were the goals of Bush’s neoconservative clique all along.
These imperial dreams are Bush’s real reasons for war. Diogenes we need you today.
