The Terrorist That Got Away

We had him on the run, the number one terrorist in the world. Many of his lieutenants had been caught or had fled the scene. It was only a matter of hours before he was caught or so it seemed. We know Osama bin Laden left his cave in the mountains. As he was leaving, he must have looked over his shoulder, bewildered that no one was following him. He didn't know it but the truth is that our best troops were already heading for Iraq. The incompetent Rumsfeld and Bush had left an escape route for the worst terrorist of them all.

Here's the truth: Bush is an incompetent when it comes to governing. But he sure knows how to play the fear card as a way of covering up his blunders. And he sure knows how to blame others for his own stupidity. Did the Democrats let Osama bin Laden get away? Sorry, but Bush is lame on that one. Has our war in Iraq gotten the terrorists off our backs? Even Rumsfeld admitted at one point that Bush administration policies were creating more terrorists than we were killing. Is Bush winning the war in Iraq? How can he win when he can't even define what he's trying to accomplish and he keeps changing the reason every few months? The United States has gained not one advantage out of Bush's war in Iraq but Democrats and a growing majority of Americans are 'unpatriotic' if they don't support a complete fiasco? These are indeed strange times.

Now the truth is that an incompetent like Bush would never have gotten far if he weren't the son of a president and had lots of help from people in the media, people like the lunatics at FOX who, I suppose, would like the ratings advantages of world war three, or at the very least, a third war somewhere, anywhere (well, that's the way they behave).

Now it seems me the radical right has done enough harm. Here's E. J. Dionne of The Washington Post on some of the games being played by Republican dead-enders:

Oh my goodness, as Don Rumsfeld might say. Support for the Iraq war hits a record low, and all the president's hit men decide that it's time to smear their opponents as defeatists who give aid and comfort to the enemy.

Of course they didn't mention the poll on Iraq released by CNN on Wednesday. As a basis for their guilt-by-association campaign, they used the fact that Democratic voters in Tuesday's Connecticut primary favored antiwar businessman Ned Lamont over Sen. Joe Lieberman.

The gentlemen who have gotten us into a mess in Iraq prefer not to explain how they'll fix things. They would rather use national security for partisan purposes, and they were all out there on Wednesday, spewing incendiary talking points. Hey, they may not have sent enough troops to win a war, but they sure know how to win midterm elections.

My Republican grandfather was a businessman who was something of a corporate troubleshooter. If there was a problem, he was sent to fix it. He was a good man. If you were trying hard and learning from your mistakes, and wanted to get a handle on the job, he would help you. But if you were incompetent and spent a lot of time blaming others instead of owning up to your blunders, he wouldn't waste time: he made short work of you and you were out the door.

I wish more voters were like my grandfather. At least there are good signs that a large majority of Americans have at long last caught on to George W. Bush and think it's time to send some people to Congress who are willing to mind the store before George makes more of a mess. In Connecticut, people are remembering a thing called democracy; it's a way of holding people accountable who aren't getting the job done—or, who just don't seem to get it.