A Bush-League History Lesson

Mr. 25% in the polls attempted to give the Democrats a history lesson today. Why does he do this? He has proven time and time again that he knows little or nothing about history. Yes, he knows how to clean and carry brush at the ranch—but he doesn’t know dick about history.

I believe it was several months ago that he tried to analyze Graham Greene’s novel, The Quiet American. He might have seen the movie, but it was clear that he didn’t intellectually grasp the book or the film. You would think that after he made an ass of himself with that earlier historical/literary analogy, maybe he would stick to something he actually understands.

But no……today he decided to again leap into twentieth-century global history with some baffling comparisons between Iraq and past historical crisis.

Bush suggested that the current Iraq dissenters and naysayers reminded him of earlier appeasers, like those who allowed Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin to launch the communist revolution; those who didn't stop Hitler when he moved to establish an ``Aryan superstate'' in Germany; and the liberals individuals in the early days of the Cold War who advocated accommodation of the Soviet Union.

``Now we're at the start of a new century, and the same debate is once again unfolding, this time regarding my policy in the Middle East,'' Bush said. ``Once again, voices in Washington are arguing that the watchword of the policy should be stability.''

Bush said any denial of war is dangerous and added that "History teaches us that underestimating the words of evil, ambitious men is a terrible mistake." The president added that "Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. And the question is, will we listen?"

Oh my God…..what the fuck is this man talking about? He has dredged up the Nazi-appeasers argument. I thought that one was in mothballs. Using Bush’s logic, Iraq becomes a stand in for every disastrous event that has taken place in the entire course of human history. There were always people like him giving warnings, but liberals others just didn’t listen.

It’s not just Lenin, Hitler, and the Communists that made their "intentions clear"—hell Democrats and liberals have always been on the wrong side haven’t we? Indian attacks, Napoleon, slave rebellions, British troops burning the White House, union anarchists, uppity suffragettes, Castro, dirty naked hippies at Woodstock…….Bush and his ilk always knew the real motivations of these troublemakers and their allies. It’s us soft and pansy-ass liberals who have allowed this crap to flourish.

Let me respond to this moron with a more serious critique. He is absolutely wrong about the Cold War—wrong in so many ways. I cringe to think where we would be if Bush and his minions had been in charge during those critical years. I guess many of us would be small cinders or pieces of chard still smoldering in the nuclear fucking dust.

Even with all the hubris and the mistakes that were made during the Cold War, cooler heads generally prevailed and we averted a major meltdown. Isn’t that what we were aiming for? No, maybe I have it wrong. Maybe we should have let the nukes fly and showed the world what men we were.

Yes, both nations spent too much money and manufactured lots of unnecessary misery around the world……but we did avoid a nuclear catastrophe, we did end up with some stability (not a bad word in my lexicon), and a generation of diplomats steered this nation fairly well considering the circumstances.

As you nod off tonight, think about the following Cold War scenarios:
--Bush instead of JFK as president during the Cuban Missile Crisis (goodbye Cuba!)
--Not Eisenhower, but Bush negotiating with the Soviets during the U2 incident (nukes a flyin’)
--Bush, Cheney, and Wolfowitz dealing with the Berlin blockade instead of Truman, Marshall, and Acheson (Germany split into at least 15 sections)

Things could have always been worse my friends—Bush and his kind might have been in charge. His comments on the Cold War are an embarrassment. He is an embarrassment.