BushWorld

[zenbabe]

WASHINGTON -- It's their reality. We just live and die in it.

In Bushworld, our troops go to war and get killed, but you never see the bodies coming home.

In Bushworld, flag-draped remains of the fallen are important to revere and show the nation, but only in political ads hawking the president's leadership against terror.

In Bushworld, we can create an exciting Iraqi democracy as long as it doesn't control its own military, pass any laws or have any power.

In Bushworld, we can win over Fallujah by bulldozing it.

In Bushworld, it was worth going to war so Iraqis could express their feelings ("Down With America!") without having their tongues cut out, although we cannot yet allow them to express intemperate feelings in newspapers ("Down With America!") without shutting them down.

In Bushworld, it's fine to take $700 million that Congress provided for the war in Afghanistan and 9-11 recovery and divert it to the war in Iraq that you are insisting you are not planning.

In Bushworld, you don't consult your father, the expert in being president during a war with Iraq, but you do talk to your Higher Father, who can't talk back to warn you to get an exit strategy or chide you for using Him for political purposes.

In Bushworld, it's OK to run for re-election as the avenger of 9-11, even as you make secret deals with the Arab kingdom where most of the 9-11 hijackers came from.

In Bushworld, you get to strut around like a tough military guy and paint your rival as a chicken hawk, even though he's the one who won medals in combat and was praised by his superior officers for fulfilling all his obligations.

In Bushworld, it makes sense to press for transparency in Mr. and Mrs. Rival while cultivating your own opacity.

In Bushworld, you can reign as the antiterror president even after hearing an intelligence report about al-Qaida's plans to attack America and then stepping outside to clear brush.

In Bushworld, those who dissemble about the troops and money it will take to get Iraq on its feet are patriots, while those who are honest are patronizingly marginalized.

In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq, even as they increasingly merge the two in America.

In Bushworld, you can claim to be the environmental president on Earth Day while being the industry president every other day.

In Bushworld, you brag about how well Afghanistan is going, even though soldiers like Pat Tillman are still dying and the Taliban are running freely around the border areas, hiding Osama and delaying elections.

In Bushworld, imperfect intelligence is good enough to knock over Iraq. But even better evidence that North Korea is building the weapons that Saddam could only dream about is hidden away.

In Bushworld, the CIA says it can't find out whether there are WMD in Iraq unless we invade on the grounds that there are WMD.

In Bushworld, there's no irony that so many who did so much to avoid the Vietnam draft have now strained the military so much that lawmakers are talking about bringing back the draft.

In Bushworld, we're making progress in the war on terror by fighting a war that creates terrorists.

In Bushworld, you don't need to bother asking your vice president and top Defense Department officials whether you should go to war in Iraq, because they've already maneuvered you into going to war.

In Bushworld, it's perfectly natural for the president and vice president to appear before the 9-11 commission like the Olsen twins.

In Bushworld, you expound on remaking the Middle East and spreading pro-American sentiments even as you expand anti-American sentiments by ineptly occupying Iraq and unstintingly backing Ariel Sharon on West Bank settlements.

In Bushworld, we went to war to give Iraq a democratic process, yet we disdain the democratic process that causes allies to pull out troops.

In Bushworld, you pride yourself on the fact that your administration does not leak to the press, while you flood the best-known journalist in Washington with inside information.

In Bushworld, you list Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack as recommended reading on your campaign Web site, even though it makes you seem divorced from reality. That is, unless you live in Bushworld.
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New York Times News Service

[weissenflatz]

It makes me sad, to read how much truth there's in that article.

[Avalon]

In Bush world, someone who has already served a year in Iraq is getting ready to be sent back *this is a personal note, but I know that goes for many others as well*

[zenbabe]

why do you think I insisted my boy get out of the Navy STAT!

[priceyfatprude]

He better not get re-elected.

[masterofNone]

i wouldn't bet the farm either way just yet.

[Smartypants]

Bet what farm? The one the bank foreclosed on due to Republican economic policies?

[masterofNone]

oh... yeah... another bushworld bit of trivia....

in bushworld folks drive SUVs, regardless of the gas prices, because tax cuts don't allow the states to repair potholes and only a vehicle with four wheel drive can handle the cratered road conditions.

[nycwriters]

Has there ever been a President NOT re-elected at a time when the US was at war? Somewhere I heard this... can't remember where.

I dread him getting re-elected, but Kerry's not really charismatic or "powerful presence" enough for the American people, and there's an awful lot of rednecks out there who misguidedly believe that the war in Iraq is justification for 9/11.

Yes. Still.

Even after the White House came out and said "Oh if you believed us going to war in Iraq had anything to do with Bin Laden and 9/11, based on us using the word "terrorism" over and over again in press conferences, then we apologize. Iraq has nothing to do with Bin Laden or 9/11."

[Klynne]

Today I started reading Ron Kovak's book "Born on the Fourth of July" (or is it Kovick?). His depiction of being shot in combat was horrifying. What was worse was his description of the others dying and wounded around him. The people that were lucky to make it were treated like they were livestock in the VA hospital. This moron general walked in and handed out purple hearts to men that did not even know where in the hell they were. It made me think about what is happening in Iraq today, and the suffering and needless loss of life. We did not learn in Vietnam I guess. History justs keeps repeating itself.

[laughingbuddha]

Originally posted by nycwriters
Has there ever been a President NOT re-elected at a time when the US was at war? Somewhere I heard this... can't remember where.

I dread him getting re-elected, but Kerry's not really charismatic or "powerful presence" enough for the American people, and there's an awful lot of rednecks out there who misguidedly believe that the war in Iraq is justification for 9/11.

Yes. Still.

Even after the White House came out and said "Oh if you believed us going to war in Iraq had anything to do with Bin Laden and 9/11, based on us using the word "terrorism" over and over again in press conferences, then we apologize. Iraq has nothing to do with Bin Laden or 9/11."

ditto