"The liberation of 50 million people"? My attempt at Special Commentary

[IDemo]

-- I'm thinking that Keith will come up with an especially blistering Special Commentary after the latest verbal assault on reason by the Commander Guy in Chief. Here's my own attempt in the meantime:

Just as we thought you were done already, Mr. Bush. Just as we thought you were over yourself enough to at least begin going through the motions of handing over the reigns of power to one of the two candidates who will succeed you next January. To move in the direction of diplomacy and humility in words and actions; if not exactly paving the way for smoother foreign relations, at least doing your best not to burn the remaining bridges. But there you are like a leaky roof or a body in a third-rate horror flick, coming back again and again. There's just no ignoring you, Mr. Bush, much as we would all like to.

You have once again made it plain that, in your mind anyway, it really is all about you.

In your reply to a question from Ned Temko of the Guardian newspaper, when asked what you thought your legacy would be, you issued forth another Bushism. No, not the laughable "food on your family" variety of Bushism, but the kind that has truly identified the criminal audacity and audacious criminality of your regime: 'the liberation of 50 million people from the clutches of barbaric regimes is noteworthy, at a minimum', you said.

That you wouldn't hesitate to spout such an outrage and do so with a straight face no longer surprises the American public, or at least the non Eighteen-Percenters of the public who have been paying attention these past seven and a half years.

One definition of noteworthy from The Free Dictionary reads "having worth or merit or value". Your legacy, if it can be called that, obviously fails to agree with that description. I will use another definition of 'noteworthy' from The Free Dictionary to describe you and your legacy: "important in effect or meaning". You know, kind of like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs?

"The liberation of 50 million people from the clutches of barbaric regimes is noteworthy."

No, what is noteworthy, Mr. Bush, is your failure either to grasp the irony of your statement or to care that the liberation you speak of has resulted in 4100 dead American soldiers, thirty thousand wounded, as many as one million dead Iraqi citizens, four million Iraqis displaced from their homes, and a ruined nation. One which didn't, after all, have the weapons of mass destruction you launched your noble liberation effort to find. Now there was another ugly Bushism: "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere", you later joked in the Oval Office.

What is noteworthy, Mr. Bush, is that as bad as Saddam Hussein's reign of terror was, in no way could it measure up on the scale of barbarity to the utter horror that Iraq has become since Shock and Awe and Mission Accomplished arrived to "liberate".

What is noteworthy, Mr. Bush, is that, in the name of your bogusly named 'War on Terror', you have lessened the freedom of your own people with your wiretapping and your assault on habeas corpus.

And now, with the months ticking down until your regime has been replaced for good, you have been sending strong signals that maybe you're not going to go away quietly as we all fervently wish you would. You might just be able to squeeze in a little more of your self-described noteworthiness for Iran, too.

You have said that you believe history will treat you well, Mr. Bush. It will not. But your regime has certainly been noteworthy.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. "And I also imprisoned 300 million under my own evil regime!"