I scream, you scream, Bush screams for ice cream
" The problem is Bush is engaged in too many wars
right now to start another one.
Bush's buddies in business have been waging war on
our retirement accounts. The president has been
pretending he never met Ken Lay, while talking about
holding executives accountable. But he still doesn't
want more government regulation of business, and
would like to hand Social Security over to Wall
Street. "
ROB MORSE
San Francisco Chronicle
sfgate.com Sunday, September 8, 2002
This is the worst kind of guerrilla combat for Bush.
He's in a free-fire zone, wearing regular-guy
camouflage over his pinstriped CEO uniform. It isn't
Bush's fault that the economy has tanked, but
sending tanks to Iraq won't help."
A friend said not to worry about George W. Bush
ordering an invasion of Iraq. "He's like a child who
wants ice cream," she said. "He'll be satisfied with
something smaller, like a cookie."
My friend has never had children.
I've never had children, but I've taught children. No kid
who wants ice cream gladly takes a cookie, and few
adults either. I've got a feeling young Bush is going to
scream "evil" until he gets to lick Saddam Hussein.
He won't take some stinking cookie from U.N.
weapons inspectors.
This is not to imply that Bush is childish, although he
does call Vladimir Putin "Pooty-poot." This is to say
he's stubborn. He's going to invade Iraq, and that's
that.
The campaign may involve thousands of casualties
beyond the handful allowed in modern American
wars, but no doubt the U.S. military can beat So
Damn Insane, as a woman I know calls Hussein.
He's so damn insane he frightens many Iraqi officers,
and they could turn on him, if they think Bush will
follow through on his threats.
I sure hope the invasion plan works, whatever the
plan is, if there is a plan, and I doubt it.
The problem is Bush is engaged in too many wars
right now to start another one.
Bush's buddies in business have been waging war on
our retirement accounts. The president has been
pretending he never met Ken Lay, while talking about
holding executives accountable. But he still doesn't
want more government regulation of business, and
would like to hand Social Security over to Wall
Street.
This is the worst kind of guerrilla combat for Bush.
He's in a free-fire zone, wearing regular-guy
camouflage over his pinstriped CEO uniform. It isn't
Bush's fault that the economy has tanked, but
sending tanks to Iraq won't help.
Bush is waging war on the environment. He wants
more SUVs and fewer trees in those outdoorsy SUV
commercials. He wants to drill for oil in unspoiled
land in Alaska. When the wells of Iraq are burning,
he'll have another argument for that policy.
Naturally, he didn't attend the Earth Summit. As one
clerk at my grocery store said, "I guess you have to
be an earthling to attend."
Bush is waging war against the middle and working
classes, giving tax cuts predominantly to the rich.
This class war has been going on under quite a few
administrations of both parties. As Kevin Phillips
shows in "Wealth and Democracy," between 1950
and 2000, corporate taxes as a percentage of total
tax receipts fell from 27 percent to 10 percent.
Bush is just the latest president to be driven by huge
increases in business contributions to politicians of
both parties. Whatever else their differences, Bush
and Bill Clinton went to Yale and hang out with
people whose money hangs out in the Caymans.
Bush and John Ashcroft are waging war on our civil
liberties. Sorry, I've got to make this quick because
the Patriot Act allows them to break into my house
while I'm away.
The most publicized Bush wars lately have been
political brushfire wars. Democrats, heads of friendly
nations and some respected Republicans think we're
strong enough to deter Hussein from using weapons
of mass destruction. They don't think pre-emptively
invading Iraq is such a great idea. Let us count the
ways it may not be a great idea.
Wars cost lots of money and the country is already
in the red.
Every oil-producing country in the world, including
Russia, could get mad and force us to ride bikes.
If threatened with overthrow, Hussein may use germ
warfare on our troops. He's so damn insane he may
decide to go down in a toxic cloud of murder- suicide.
If we win, we own Iraq, but we still haven't figured out
what to do with Afghanistan. Look, running
Baghdad-by-the-Bay is hard enough. Who wants
Baghdad?
Oh, yeah, it may not be right to overthrow foreign
officials. Sure, it's been done to Guatemala, Iran and
the Florida Supreme Court, but no good ever came of
those interventions.
None of this matters. Bush wants to invade Iraq. He
got into Yale. He got into the Air National Guard. He
got a baseball team. He got the Oval Office. He gets
what he wants. He gets to invade Iraq.
Rob Morse's column appears Mondays,
Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. His e-mail
address is rmorse@sfchronicle.com
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