Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Bush's legacy demands the head of bin Laden

Steve Weissman

If Osama bin Laden consciously set out to lure the United States into an ever-widening, never-ending and militarily unwinnable war, President George W. Bush is providing exactly the war the bearded one wanted. Start with Iraq, [...]

Move on to Iran, where the New Yorker's Sy Hersh has caught Washington sponsoring what can only be called terrorist attacks within the country, while Mr. Bush now tells the Israelis to go ahead with their preparations for possible aerial strikes against Tehran's nuclear enrichment and other facilities.

On to Afghanistan, where the CIA's hand-picked Hamid Karzai has predictably failed to become a viable national leader, mostly because his fellow Pashtun tribesmen see him for what he is - the Afghan face of a foreign military occupation. [...]

And so to Pakistan, where the Pentagon is systematically destabilizing the newly elected and highly fragile civilian government, as the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its task force sit menacingly off the Pakistani coast.

Allahu Akhbar! What more could bin Laden want?

Yeah, Bush makes me invoke the name of the Almighty as well.

Why, then, their suddenly renewed interest in finding bin Laden after so many years of letting him run free? The answer is both simple and shabby. During Mr. Bush's short stay in London in mid-June, the Sunday Times reported that he had ordered his troops to capture bin Laden before the administration leaves office as a way to secure the Bush legacy. "If he [Bush] can say he has killed Saddam Hussein and captured Bin Laden, he can claim to have left the world a safer place," the Sunday Times quoted one US intelligence source. "Bush is swinging for the fences in the hope of scoring a home run."

Is giving bin Laden the martyrdom he craves worth destroying civilian democracy and risking a civil war in Pakistan? To George W. Bush and the hyper-military John McCain, the question is hardly worth asking.

This may not be politically correct, but I hope bin Laden can avoid death or capture until after 1.20.09 so as to leave Bush's legacy at 100% - corporate running dog, shredder of the Constitution, neocon imperialist warmonger, borrower-and-spender enough to make U.S. a third-world country, an unbelievably incompetent politically motivated toady who gathered others of his ilk into positions of power, let-'em-eat-cake attitude toward the American people, destroyer of the economy, domestic and international felon many times over who ruined America's stature in the rest of the world possibly for generations if not permanently, and an arrogant, smirking little coward of a fascist bully, an international embarrassment to us all with his Ugly American buffoonery, and a constant incorrigible liar. I could think of lots more if I sat here long enough.

The one - I say again one - good thing he has done is to flush the Repuglican't party down the shitter for the next 20 years. Hopefully until his butcher's bill is paid, which could be a lot longer.

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