(Disclaimer: the "value" I describe is a Bush administration value, only, and may not be seen as a value in all 50 states--this also goes for "Nihilism"--in its limited definition as having disposed of beliefs, in my first post in the series:
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/vixengrl/4 and "ignorance": in its more complete definition of both not knowing things and intentionally not knowing things from :
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/vixengrl/5 -and yes, I realize I muffed up the url on the last graf--: icasualties.org . Yes, I post really late at night. And screw up.)
The Bush value of the hour is denial--and it stands him in good stead. If he can deny this current crisis in Iraq, avoid calling it a civil war, and have our troops stay there the next two years--he knows he's had a version of success. It will be up to somebody else to pull troops out, some unfortunate person who may be either a Republican (hmm, how long do you figure McCain will take--or Guiliani?) or a Democrat (would President Clinton make this her first order of business, not to be stuck with a Somalia? Wouldn't President Gore--finally and godspeed, even from this agnostic--immediately see the error?) But so long as he has stayed--at least he has shown he had the will to. He didn't wuss out--"Wimp" was not what the W stood for. Oh, he may be viewed as the worst president ever--who bastardized the Constitution in numerous ways. He may have been taken to task over the wiretapping, and the asset-freezing, and the holding without charge of persons both citizen and not, and maybe the waterboarding was beyond the pale. Maybe the pre-emptive war notion was a bit presumptuous. But this was one Oval-office-holding son-of-gun . Bush will not be the guy who "lost". He passes on fourth and twenty-two. In the record of this time, it will not be said he either gave up the ball, nor knelt.
Though, this looks to be something like the two minute warning. But so what if his audible regarding 20,000 extra troops doesn't seem useful to everybody, or that his claim that AL-Qaeda in Iraq has been fomenting violence just to spite him, er, just the way it was alleged they raised the violence levels prior to the U.S. elections is demonstrably--weird. Just because he can't win--as even Hank Kissinger says, doesn't mean he can't promote a delay of game. And run out the clock until '08.
But of course, this is not a game, and Bush, alas, is a president, not a QB. His leadership is not just about his war, which has been terrible, but this democratic republic he has been selected by SCOTUS and the RNC to lead. But what Bush will have on his side, if shit comes to fan, is denial. He could claim ignorance--which as previously stated, he has in abundance, for certain issues, and, misunderestimated as he is, it may well stick. He can claim his lack of understanding of the issue, and with the fall of certain expendable partisans, escape cleanly--after all, look at Iran-Contra. "I do not recall" can get a president off the hook.*
(*Unless, very unless, we and our representatives in congress recognize that the leader is in fact culpable for the high crimes and misdemeanors occurring amongst his inner circle even during his presumptive reign. He did not know Ken Lay, very well, you may recall, and knew Jack Abramoff still less. In regards to Halliburton, will Bush someday claim he did not know Cheney real well?)
Bush has been saved many times, and not just by Billy Graham. He was saved from Viet Nam, 'tis said, by friends of his father. He was saved from losing the WH by SCOTUS. But when all his deeds and those of his seconds--from EPA to Justice, from Defense to NSA, are truly looked at--what will he need?
To deny. Deny, deny, deny. As he denies there is a civil war now (shoot, even Colin Powell, admits it, now, and he's real late to the reality party) and still swears he'll persist until the victory many have said is impossible, denial is a real Bush value.
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