Bush's Response

I can't believe that Bush has the gall to use the phrase "abdicate", "pork", and "political theatre", when all of these concepts have led to his undoing as a President and his election.

I can't believe that he would accuse the Democratic majority of not acting in the best interest in the American people when long ago people have lost faith in this ill-fated occupation and war.

Again, I cannot make it clear how much of a mistake I think it is that we are in the middle of a war we cannot win. And I try to put myself in the mind frame of a President who seems to beholden to a lost cause.

The War in Iraq has nothing to do with the War on Terror. I do not know how much I can emphasize this.

I remember what H.L. Mencken said. I have never met a true believer worth knowing.

Bush is a true believer in this ill-fated endeavor. LBJ famously referred to Vietnam as his "bitch mistress" and it eventually led to his undoing. I wonder if Bush sees this as a cancer on his presidency or if he sees things in terms of this Armageddon like struggle between Christianity and radical Islam. Does he worry that his reputation as a President has taken a severe blow or does he even think in terms of that?

Politics is all about reading between the lines and Bush, as a lame duck, continues to alienate all but his rapidly shrinking base. But then again, he has nothing to lose.

He is stubborn to cling to positions that set him against the grain of popular opinion and but my hope is that his stubborn denial to face reality will render him more and more irrelevant.

The futurists have long predicted that we will live in an era of terrorism from now until 2050. But I do not believe, no matter what the President says, that a surge of troops can do anything positive towards the inevitable struggle in which we in the Western world will find ourselves.

I remember around 11 September, many believed that these were indeed the end times and this was just biblical prophecy becoming fulfilled. Since that point in time, we have lost our patriotic and religious fervor and found ourselves locked into a futile struggle to contain a civil war that we created.

It seems inevitable that we will be in this conflict for the next two years at least and my hope is whomever wins in 2008 will bring common sense back to the table.