[wvns] When George Bush Smiles People Die
When George Bush Smiles People Die
By Robert Weitzel
Countercurrents.org
"[Bush's] face seems to be involved in a somewhat
painful, quasi-involuntary struggle to prevent itself
from erupting into a broad, self-satisfied smile . . .
a what-me-worry?"
- The New Yorker's Joe Klein
In a recent Associated Press photograph, President
Bush flashes his "what-me-worry?" smile at the camera
while shaking the hand of Sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu
Risha. Abu Risha is not smiling, by the way. He is
deadly earnest . . . or worried . . . or scared.
For the ex-Texas Ranger front man and glad hander, it
was just another photo-op—one of the thousands he's
posed for and walked away from and forgotten about
since 2001. For the sheik, it was a death warrant—a
specialty of the ex-Texas Ranger and governor. But
because of pressing business elsewhere in Iraq the
Reaper was a short while in arriving.
Abu Risha, a Sunni Arab tribal leader and one of the
Bush/Cheney administration's highest profile allies,
was killed by a roadside car bomb planted 150 feet
from his home ten days after Bush smiled for the
camera and shook his hand.
Commenting on the sheik's assassination, Bush pledged
to continue supporting anti-insurgent efforts in the
Anbar province, an area he called "a good example of
how our strategy is working" in Iraq. Abu Risha's home
is in Anbar. Enough said.
On May 1, 2003 the Commander in Chief, in the co-pilot
seat of Navy One, landed on the aircraft carrier USS
Abraham Lincoln. Before standing beneath a banner
which read "Mission Accomplished" to announce the end
of major combat operations in Iraq, the ex-Texas
Ranger glad hander spent his time shaking the hands
and slapping the backs of young men and women who were
engaged in the deadly business of war.
In an official White House photograph, the president
is seen smiling in the midst of orange-clad members of
the carrier's crew. For Bush, his flight-suit charade
on the Abraham Lincoln was just another photo-op. For
U.S. military personnel and the Iraqi people it was a
death warrant.
By the end of "major combat operations," 139 Americans
and thousands of Iraqis had been killed. In the years
since Bush flew away from the "Mission Accomplished"
photo-op, an additional 3,637 Americans have died
along with possibly hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis—too many of them Iraqi children . . . all of
them someone's child.
By any unblinkered account, George W. Bush's natural
endowments are best described as mediocre, considering
the pack he runs with. He failed at, or was bailed out
of, every scheme he tried his hand at save two . . .
renting his Texas-sized smile and his "ah shucks"
charisma to a major league baseball team and a
political party. In both cases, he's sat in a box seat
behind home plate while the game has been played for
his pleasure—and apparent amusement—and for that of
his bosses and invited guests.
Here's the major rub. Being the president of the
United States, currently the most influential nation
on Earth, a nation with the might and resources to be
either bully or benefactor, is not a sport, neither is
it a party—political or frat house or whatever. It is
a responsibility so grave that it's hard to imagine a
smile gracing the face of any sitting president who
truly understands the gravity of their position. I've
yet to see a picture of Abraham Lincoln with a
"what-me-worry?" smile. He understood. George W. Bush
never will.
Predictably though, Bush will walk away from his job
of putting a happy frat boy face on neocon ideology
and corporate conservatism and he will walk away—if
not run—from the Iraq War and the blood on his hands
as if they were no more than the dry oil wells he
abandoned in Texas. He will begin a new career renting
his smile and his ghostwritten "ah-shucks" speeches to
any fundamentalist mega-church or right wing
organization willing to meet his price.
Keep in mind that Bush will have had eight years at
taxpayer expense and sacrifice and sorrow to perfect
his shtick. He will be a pricy jester according Texas
writer Robert Draper who asked him about life after
leaving office, "I'll give some speeches, just to
replenish the ol' coffers. I don't know what my dad
gets — it's more than 50-75 thousand dollars a speech
. . ." And he will not doubt smile his Texas-sized
grin as he swaggers his way to the bank.
Keep in mind also the tens of thousands of wounded
U.S. Iraqi War veterans who are not so much concerned
with beginning a second career as they are with
surviving one day to the next with whatever they have
left of their bodies and minds. Be assured that their
smiles, if there are many, will not be of the
"what-me-worry?" variety made famous by their glad
handing chicken-hawk Commander in Chief.
There may yet be a way to wipe the Texas-sized
"what-me-worry?" smile off the mug of the Glad-hander
in Chief. That would be impeachment. That would be
justice. That would be something for the rest of us to
smile about.
Robert Weitzel is a freelance writer whose essays
appear in The Capital Times in Madison, WI. He has
been published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
Skeptic Magazine, and Freethought Today. He can be
contacted at: rweitz @ tds.net
*********************************************************************
WORLD VIEW NEWS SERVICE
To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
wvns-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
NEWS ARCHIVE IS OPEN TO PUBLIC VIEW
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/
Need some good karma? Appreciate the service?
Please consider donating to WVNS today.
Email ummyakoub@yahoo.com for instructions.
To leave this list, send an email to:
wvns-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:wvns-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:wvns-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
wvns-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
No comments:
Post a Comment