I was going to write about the NIE report that says Iraq is getting far worse not far better, or the upcoming GAO report which says the Iraqis have met 3 out of 18 benchmarks. But then I saw that Karl Rove is still planting the suggestion that his boss buddy is the equivalent of Harry Truman and that it's just the fault of the media for not seeing it.
Let's get this straight. The guy whose desk has never seen a buck even drift by is being compared to Truman? No one in this administration can say the words "I messed up," "I take responsibility." If Bush & Cheney wanted to take responsibility for the disasters they have created they would resign in a heartbeat. Rove calls Bush a man of moral clarity. I guess that means invading countries on trumped up charges is clear. Continuing to make the same mistakes year after year is clear. Spying on Americans for exercising Constitutional rights is clear. Torture is clear. Encouraging obscene profit making by HMO's and other corporate elite is fine and dandy while the middle class gets killed is clear. No-bid contracts are clear. Cutting a birthday cake and playing air guitar while a city drowns is clear. Cutting down forests while calling it a Clear Air program is clear. I could go on and on but Truman wouldn't.
The amount of whitewash it would take to remove the stain of the Bush Administration doesn't exist. History (if we get that far) will not treat this band of thugs, liars and crooks well. This is a kakistocracy beyond redemption. In a week the compliant media will start beating the war drum with Iran but I hope enough fearful Americans will not buy the abused car from these bums yet again (it would be the last car). We already know the Petraeus report will betray the truth once again. Everything is not fine and throwing more American and Iraqi lives away will not fix it. We blew it and going in and out of Baghdad with troops fixes absolutely nothing. George resembles Harry? Not even close.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. Bush = Truman? Whats he going to do, drop a couple of A bombs?
Crossroads Team
Steve Bonomo
Steve Bonomo at 3:23PM on Sep 1st 2007
2. GREAT COMPARISON. TRUMAN WASNT TRUELY APPRECIATED UNTIL HE WAS NO LONGER THE PRESIDENT, AND HISTORY GOT IT RIGHT WHEN IT SHOWED HOW GREAT A LEADER HE TRUELY WAS. TO THE PERSON WHO WROTE THIS ARTICLE, IF YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OUR PRESIDENT SAY, "I TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY", OR "WE'VE MADE SOME MISTAKES" THEN YOU HAVENT BEEN LISTENING. YOU KNOW THATS WHY GOD GAVE US TWO EARS AND ONLY ONE MOUTH. SO WE'D LISTEN TWICE AS HARD. ALSO, IF YOU KNOW YOUR HISTORY... LINCOLN FIRED THREE GENERALS DURING THE CIVIL WAR BEFORE HE GOT GRANT, MISTAKES DO HAPPEN IN WARS AND VICTORY IS OBVIOUSLY ACHIEVABLE. IN YOUR ARTICLE YOU ARE BASICALLY CALLING PETRAEUS A LIAR BEFORE YOU EVEN HEAR HIS REPORT!! OH, THATS FAIR... TYPICAL LEFT WINGER, WE HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR, BUT VICTORY ITSELF.
Kerry at 12:21AM on Sep 2nd 2007
3. Who in HELL does Phil Bailey think he is? Is he writing the report for the General? You sir, are
beyond belief. You are all MOUTH with nothing else. Please save your garbage so the people can hear the real report from someone who knows something important.
Bill at 1:19AM on Sep 2nd 2007
4. W. is not the equivalent of Truman. But he does make Nixon look like FDR.
And to all you Neo Conservatives - open your eyes. I spent my first 18 years on the right side too...it took joining a ridiculous beuracratic organization such as the Navy to realize how full of crap Republicans really are.
Tristan at 11:20AM on Sep 2nd 2007
5. I most certainly see the resemblance. However, I am of the opinion that Truman had the foresight that Bush lacks. While the world is inarguably a much different place today than in 1945, Truman's success was the product of his decision to bomb and run. He leveled both Japan's will to fight and America's fear of a neverending war in one fell swoop. And though the price of this was the emergence of a NEW, more menacing fear---namely that of nuclear weapons---this fear had to come sometime, seeing as how rival nations were already building their own nuclear arsenal.
Instead of using a quick and dirty blitzkrieg or, better yet, deceptive diplomacy designed to spur the entire region to fight one another, he opts for a long and drawn out terrestrial occupation at the expense of thousands of American lives. Perhaps this is because he doesn't know what else to do; perhaps this is because of his sympathetic feelings toward Israel (a nation that produces just as many terrorists as Afghanistan or Iraq), but regardless of his reasons, he's failing and there's no sign he'll stop.
Seth at 5:23PM on Sep 2nd 2007
6. Truman will come out on top in any Truman Bush comparisons in large part because Truman did not have to deal with our present day liberal media. Our liberal media would have had a field day with:
In 1945 our liberal media would have lost their minds (rightly so) that tens of thousands of Japanese and German Americans had their Constitutional rights trampled and were sent to internment camps for the duration of the war. Unlike those in Gitmo their only crime was their ancestry.
From 1941-1945 our liberal media would have created a running scandal (FDR was President for 8 years not just 8 months before the attack) on the success of the Japanese attack. How much did this administration know before hand, why did't they act, yada yada yada.
In 1945 our liberal media would have screamed 'How could you send our troops to war with inadqeuate equipment' when the shells of our Sherman tanks just bounced off the frontal and side armour of most German tanks.
In 1945 our liberal media would have crucified Truman for the "same mistakes year after year" our island hopping campaign across the Pacific was costing in lives. On one island, Iwo Jima, we lost 6281 KIA and 17,000 wounded in just over a month.
In 1945 our liberal media would have crucified Truman for dropping not one, but two atomic bombs on Japan. Japan was defeated, we had fire bombed nearly every city in Japan off the map, surely there must be a more P.C. way to end the war.
In 1950 our liberal media would have screamed and then crucified Truman for selling Americans an "abused car" called the Korean War just five years after WWII. The Korean war cost 53,000 KIA and approx 150,000 wounded in just three years.
Dispite tens of thousands of Japanese and German Americans in internment camps, hundreds of thousands of war dead, some inadequate equipment, industrialists making huge profits on no-bid war contracts, dropping two atmoic bombs on Japan and then another 53,000 lost in the Korean war Truman will always have an advantage in any Truman Bush comparisons;
Truman did't have to deal with our liberal media.
Pete at 9:30PM on Sep 2nd 2007