WAR NERD: BUSH FOUGHT THE WARS AND THE WARS WON
By Gary Brecher, eXiled Online. Posted November 17, 2008.


http://exiledonline.com/war-nerd-bush-fought-the-wars-and-the-wars-won/


What George W. Bush loved best about his job was being a war president. Playing war, that is, as opposed to making war like a grown-up. Remember him strutting onto that carrier in his little flight jacket? You never saw Eisenhower, a real general, playing out his martial fantasies this way. You can take the drink out of the drunk, but you can't take the swagger out of a fool.

Compare Bush's eight years to Clinton's, and you see how much he loved to play the soldier. No one expected that from a Republican: Reagan and Bush senior were cautious about betting America's chips. Liberals used to make fun of Reagan for picking on tiny helpless nations that couldn't fight back. Now they are remembering with pure nostalgia Reagan's invasion of Grenada, air raids on Libya, and even our 1984 withdrawal from Beirut.

We'll never know how far W. would have gone to find himself a war because he had all he needed delivered by air on Sept. 11, 2001. Remember how people felt in those days? A friend of mine said, "It was like the aliens had invaded."

I've been full of anger with this guy for eight years now. I voted Obama, Bush is gone, it's over. Time to move on.

You never saw Eisenhower, a real general, playing out his martial fantasies this way
I'd suggest that Ike never had martial fantasies, but rather, as Supreme Allied Commander and head of planning for D-Day, Ike in reality ranks as one of the greatest generals in the history of warfare, which leaves very little room for military fantasy.  Patton's constant thoughts that he was the reincarnation of past warriors not withstanding.

If Ike had a fantasy, it was to be some Walter Mitty college professor type.

Be that as it may, Bush II, was bad at everything.

Yeah, I sometimes wonder if he and Tony Blair thought they were Roosevelt and Churchill MkII.

Quote from: Kelleygurl on November 17, 2008, 07:35:36 AM
I've been full of anger with this guy for eight years now. I voted Obama, Bush is gone, it's over. Time to move on.

This seems to me to be paradigmatic of American attitudes toward learning. "...it's over (history,) Time to move on." (and pay no attention to anything that might be learned from what did occur.)

It's why we so often get into the exact same messes and repeat again and again the same mistakes. We don't want to talk about or look at anything that's considered "passe."

Thus, the past becomes the past, until it rears up again, becomes the present and bites us.

Well, speaking as one, leaving Bush II to the historians is not going to be his dream come true.  I can't wait till Jan 20, when he is gone a lot of people are going to have a lot to say.

Quote from: Nichole on November 17, 2008, 07:59:26 AM

This seems to me to be paradigmatic of American attitudes toward learning. "...it's over (history,) Time to move on." (and pay no attention to anything that might be learned from what did occur.)

It's why we so often get into the exact same messes and repeat again and again the same mistakes. We don't want to talk about or look at anything that's considered "passe."

Thus, the past becomes the past, until it rears up again, becomes the present and bites us.

Nichole,

I couldn't agree more. Thing is I spent most of the last eight years wishing that SOB wasn't President and now that he will be gone I am finally able to banish the thought...for a little while at least. There will be plenty of time to analyze the legacy of Bush, and why we keep electing morons. I just would like to enjoy the fact the he's gone for a short time.

Sorry, didn't mean to flame you.

I was an active duty administrator in the National Guard.  There were at least two incidents I saw in Dubbuyuh's public record that would have caused me to fill out the paperwork and forward it to state HQ for processing for discharge.

But I also saw a LOT of politics played at state HQ...

Karen

And that's an awesome title, although if he's a war nerd I'd expect him to know a bit more about fighting/managing a war