A Regular Shoe-Out

No tribute to the George W. Bush presidency could possibly be more appropriate, on so many levels, than his having shoes thrown at him by an irate Iraqi. Juxtapose this with the “Mission Accomplished” photo -- of how many years ago? -- and you have an unsurpassed metaphor for the absurd. America is “The Power”. It's an empire. It's spreading democracy everywhere, or so it's alleged. But it can't protect its president against shoes thrown by – as far as our foreign policy is concerned – a distinctly inferior species of human being. The iconic value of this image not only rivals, but surpasses, ones like LBJ holding a hound dog by its ears, or Jimmy Carter dropping out of a marathon, haggard and held up by two bodyguards. We can thank the shoe-thrower for providing us this lasting picture of the utter futility of the Bush & Co. foreign policy; and of course he was absolutely right in what he said while he was lofting the footwear toward the twin podiums. Iraq and the Iraqis are more victims of American involvement than they ever were of Saddam, and our “precision weaponry” has not prevented countless of innocents from being killed or maimed. In short, our meddling in Iraq has had virtually no positive effects, except for a power elite that is tenuously holding on to its privileges, and scared to death that we'll pull out and leave them to the mercies of their countrymen, the way we did in Vietnam. (Coming soon to a theater near you – the Iraqi equivalent of the “desperately holding onto helicopter skids on the roof of the American Embassy” photo.)

The Iraqi stop was just one of many on Bush's “redemption tour”, in which he is shown, once and for all, to be totally oblivious. His is the self-confidence that comes from invincible ignorance, and his flip assertions are no more dignified than those of the common drunk being hauled off to the “tank” for the night. And his closest subordinates aren't much help either: Dick Cheney, in an ABC interview, said that the Guantanamo Bay detention center could not be closed until the “end of the war on terror”, which of course is impossible to determine. Well, let me help out a bit. Since the “war on terror” is largely a hoax cooked up by Cheney and his Neocon buddies, it could be ended at virtually any time simply by declaring it over with. And if anyone asks for solid evidence that it is, indeed, over with, the reply could simply be, it's the same sort of evidence that justified starting it in the first place. That ought to leave the media shaking their heads! But when pressed for details on Guantanamo, he said “What are you going to do with the prisoners... ? And nobody yet has solved that problem.” Again, allow me to offer some help. If they aren't charged with any crimes, and are not former combatants in a declared war, then let them go. This is not rocket science... and Cheney knows this, but pretends it is just to deflect questions and derail criticism.

And so it appears that this sorriest (but least apologetic) of all administrations is, indeed, ending with a whimper rather than a bang -- and we can be thankful for at least that much. The incoming administration is already in charge, for all intents and purposes, and all the outgoing people can do is try and run pathetic victory laps. (If there were a "Special Olympics" of politics and foreign policy they might have a chance, but regrettably... ) And, of course, we will have a brief honeymoon with Obama and all of his Clinton retreads, with only the Blagojevich affair sounding a discouraging word... until the lefties figure out that they've been had (again), and for that story see my next post.