“We’re kickin’ ass.” That’s George Bush’s latest assessment of the war in Iraq. “We’re kickin’ ass,” he said to Australian Deputy Prime Minister Mark Valle during his recent visit to the land down under.
But how accurate is this statement. Let’s try and break it down.
In the first place, the “we” implies that somehow George is taking part in the actual fighting. The last time George shot his mouth off (“Bring ’em on.”) he was 6,213 miles from the front lines. His latest comments came 8,324 miles away from Baghdad. What a tough guy.
Recall, our commander in chief, the supreme leader of our armed forces, eluded front-line duty in Vietnam after his daddy phoned a local congressman and secured a stateside position for his son, a position in Air Texas National Guard. Yet even that was too much to ask; George went absent without leave during his short-lived tour of duty.
We should also ask whether we can believe that “we” are indeed kickin’ ass. Honestly, how much ass can there be left to kick? Bush claimed the mission was accomplished way back in 2003. In 2005, Dick Cheney told us “I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.” Why do we need to keep kickin’ ass if we’ve already kicked it so thoroughly?
Maybe we shouldn’t ask the politicians. We could ask the troops if the surge is working, but there will be fewer of them to ask. More American troops have been killed per month this year compared to the same time last year.
Civilian casualties have supposedly decreased, but it’s a lot easier to say that when the people doing the counting completely ignore fatalities that result from car bombs. And that’s exactly what the Bush administration started doing this year; an odd way to keep an account of casualties.
Speaking of accounting, the Governmental Accountability Office just released a report indicating Iraq failed to meet 15 of 18 benchmarks set by Congress to gauge political and military progress within the country. After pressure from the Bush administration, the GAO changed its findings to show that some progress had been made in eight other categories.
Accountability. It’s a nice word. It would be even nicer if we had some at the national/international level. It would have been nice if the GAO had stood firm and held George accountable. But as we all know, George is a special person. He doesn’t believe in accountability. Most American citizens are unwilling to hold him accountable either. Let’s face it. Most people don’t really give a damn about what’s happening in Iraq. They’re 6,000 or more miles away from the carnage, too. The Democrats in the Senate and House have shown they don’t possess the spine to hold the president accountable. So who will?
God maybe? I hate to bring religion into the argument, but the family-values Republicans tout their spirituality all the time (The reek of irony from the previous sentence should have hit you the moment you picked up this paper). To be honest, my own faith has been badly shaken. If there truly was a God that promoted justice, then George Bush (and all of his supporters) would be on the front lines reaping all of the successes they say we’re achieving, instead of creating new ways to spin the same lie to an apathetic citizenry.

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