Head In The Sand

09/19/2006

Paul Munnis

After five years of lies and deceptions, Mr. Bush has a problem that is compounded by his division of America.

The result is a lack of credibility at home and abroad.

At home, he has put the GOP Party at risk for both the mid-term and 2008 elections.

Abroad, even small countries feel safe in opposing him and in fact small-fry dictators can get lots of popular home support by opposing Mr. Bush at the UN and in the world press.

This makes Mr. Bush a totally ineffective president, one who can only succeed by using his power and office to bully the nation and the world.

Mr. Bush has two wars ongoing and he is threatening a third. This situation is in-spite of a troop shortage and an inability to show that he is winning either of the other two campaigns as those two wars approach a fourth year of conflict. Mr. Bush does not have any diplomatic initiatives going to resolve those wars.

In Afghanistan the Taliban has rebuilt their forces and is giving NATO a pretty rough time of it, so much so that the NATO General wants another 2,000 troops. Bin-Laden remains free and inspires more opposition to the U.S.

In Iraq the U.S. troops have given up trying to pacify Iraq but are instead putting the city of Baghdad under siege in hopes of being able to police the smaller entity. The U.S. General wants another 20,000 troops. The military has run up an estimated 1 Trillion dollars on Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. America has the biggest deficit in history. We are importing oil at record rates and not selling enough abroad to pay for the imports. That means we are printing dollars to pay for oil and selling debt to cover the paper.

None of this fazes Mr. Bush and he continually asserts he has everything under control even as Iraq morphs into full-scale civil war wherein 1,000 Iraqi’s a month are being tortured and killed. The Iraqis are split into religious factions and are at war with one another even as insurgents have an ongoing war against the U.S. Thus three wars are going on inside Iraq today. Sunni’s vs Shiites, Insurgents vs the U.S., and Kurds vs Sunni’s.

Mr. Bush has caused 14,000 POW’s to be currently locked up and held incommunicado in violation of both Supreme Court rulings and international law. He is now at a point where he can be indicted by Human Rights groups because of illegal torture and abuse of human rights. He is thus asking a GOP Congress to change the laws so as to make him immune from arrest and prosecution when his term expires.

At home, the economy is on very shaky ground as layoffs from a collapsing auto industry cause job creation to be eclipsed. The housing market is also in danger of collapsing. American workers have little to no protection from government or the law from employer abuses and jobs are not that easy to find. Globalization is challenging American workers and inflation, outsourcing, and financial collapse is weakening U.S. companies. Stockholders no longer know what they are buying because of un-enforced regulations on companies that lie to their stockholders about assets and liabilities and profits and losses. The stock market is moribund and not growing at a pace needed to reflect a healthy economy. American health insurance has collapsed and now an estimaed 16 million Americans are without health insurance. America is rapidly headed for recession and stag-flation.

After five years of total control of the U.S. government the GOP cannot point to a single successful program. Energy and Transportation are a maze of pork-barrel projects that yield little for America in growth or progress. Job creation is weak and ineffective. The corruption of Congress is a total disgrace and the Congress refuses to fix the ethics rules that control their behavior. Congress has also failed to perform oversight responsibilities to police the Executive Branch which is working overtime to give corrupt advantage to campaign contributors with un-bid contracts and preferential awards and law-making. Congress has conspired to commit a form of Supreme Court ideology stuffing.

The U.S. Treasury is being raided big-time and the money is disappearing into off-shore location—out of the reach of the law. The U.S. has devalued its currency by 30% against the European Currency Unit and furhter erosion is happening as we write this. That is causing price increases and so are run-away gas prices that many feel were manipulated. Iraqi oil sales are not satisfactorily accounted for and U.S. military equipment is breaking down and they cannot afford new equipment in spite of the fact that the military budget is at an all-time high. The Pentagon cannot account for military spending and does not know where the money is going and Rumsfeld couldn’t care less.

This is only a partial list of the woes of America caused by the GOP and yet there are some 40% of Americans who say that Mr. Bush is doing a good job and that they support Mr. Bush and the GOP and that they want more of this kind of government.

Are they crazy?