A while back, the editorial staff of the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation did a piece where they introduced all the editorial writers and had little mini profiles. I did a blog on it called Meet the Staff. Martha Ezzard, one of the writers on the editorial staff, described herself thusly:
"Have been in both parties, not crazy about either. Was a republican legislator, ran for 1986 U.S. Senate nomination in Colorado. Resigned my seat and switched parties in 1987. My support of reproductive choice and strong environmental policies were the big reason."
So she's a pro-abortion, environmentalist wacko liberal. Her column in Tuesday's AJC is proof of that.
Last week in Steamboat Springs, Colo., I saw a guy in a cowboy hat flying down a ski slope he shouldn't have been on --- an unskilled skier on an expert run. Blind to steep moguls and heedless of the frantic cries of other skiers in his path, he reminded me of George W. Bush, our cowboy president.
Yep. Gotta get that "Bush is a cowboy" thing in. Let's see, our last cowboy president, Ronald Reagan, only won the Cold War. I'm thinkin' that cowboy is a good thing.
If Bush had half the coalition-building skills of his father or a smidgen of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's ability to articulate policy --- including fairness to the Palestinian people --- he might have avoided painting himself into the war-or-bust corner.
Oh yeah. Gotta get that "fairness to the Palestinian people" in there. That's a rant all to itself. Hey Martha, who walked away from the most generous deal the Palestinians will ever get? Arafat made no counter offer, he just left, emptied the Palestinian jails of terrorists and started the latest cycle of violence. And didja ever think that Bush might have been planning this war all along? Oh, that's right. Bush is a moron. I forgot.
Bush fails to understand that superior military and economic might by themselves do not cause the nations of the world to side with America. Instant global communications make ideas more powerful than ever. In the United Nations Security Council, for example, Chile's proposal for disarming Iraq made more sense to much of the world than did the American proposition.
GMAFB! Chile? What liberals like Martha don't seem to understand is the only reason Saddam has cooperated as much as he has is because of the trrops in Kuwait. This war was inevitable. And Martha, in case you haven't noticed, the rest of the world is pretty much against us anyway. They hate us, but they sure would like to live here. Wonder why?
Chile's proposal, similar in its specificity and timetable to one offered by Blair, would surely have been the starting point for an American president more skilled in diplomacy.
Like, perhaps, Bill Clinton?
The failure to define "total and unconditional disarmament" in Resolution 1441 is responsible for many nations' wanting a second U.N. resolution --- discounting France, which has completely lost credibility.
Ah, the blind pig finding the acorn or a stopped clock being right twice a day, every now and then, a liberal has to get sumpin' right.
I hoped in vain that Bush would utter a few new lines at the press conference following his Azores summit with leaders of his shrinking "coalition of the willing." I hoped in vain he would find a way in his address to the nation to offer a last-minute plan that might rally other major powers to the U.S. position, that might rise above his arrogant penchant for ultimatums.
Like what? Giving Saddam another 12 years to disarm? Keeping our troops in the desert for another year? That would give liberals like Martha sumpin' else to gripe about: How much it's costing to keep our troops over there and how it has "squandered the Clinton surplus".
Am I also hoping in vain that the United States will adopt a Middle East policy sensitive to all the oppressed people of the region, including the Palestinians?
Maybe if the Palestinians would quit exploding sumpin' could be worked out. Let me point out once again that it was Arafat who walked away from the peace negotiations and started the current violence. We have tried to restart talks but them damn Palestinians just keep exploding. Living up to Oslo and removing the clause in the PLO charter that calls for the destruction of Israel might be a start. And prior to the current uprising, we were leaning real hard on Israel to make concessions. Did we ever do the same to the Palestinians? The Palestinians, in putting more efforts into the destruction of Israel than in living peacefully in their own state have pretty much brought the oppression upon themselves. I'm sorry, but my pity meter doesn't seem to work anymore.
And that Bush will keep his promise that Iraq's oil will belong to Iraq's people? (Crassly, the White House has asked for contract proposals for rebuilding Iraq --- whatever that means --- from several companies, including Halliburton. Could it be that Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, now being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, will benefit from this war?)
Martha! Have you been talking to Cynthia McKinney? Damn! She found out.
It isn't about oil after all. It's about construction contracts. We're gonna destroy Iraq so we can have American companies rebuild it.
Bush's instincts, like those of a novice skier, are not all wrong, of course: One way or another, you have to finish the run. One way or another, the world must be rid of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of rogue regimes and terrorists --- though the two are not always connected as the president so disingenuously asserts. But Bush has botched the battle for world opinion as surely as he has muffed coalition building. He has split America's allies, old and new, instead of bringing them together.
So we have to wait for permission from France, Germany and Chile? The world is realigning Martha. France and Germany ceased to be allies quite some time ago. But the countries in Eastern Europe, grateful to us for defeating the Soviet Union in the Cold War and freeing them, are now our allies. And we were attacked on 9/11. I don't really give a shit about world opinion. The international community did not help us when 52 diplomats, in violation of international law, were taken hostage in Iran. And your hero, Jimmah Carter, was powerless to do anything about it. It wasn't until a "cowboy president" took office that the hostages were freed. Perhaps they thought that Reagan had a spine.
Even when it comes to the cost of war, he has refused to level with the American people or Congress.
That's because he doesn't know. It depends on how long the war lasts. And the longer troops sit over there doing nothing, the more expensive the war will be and the more you'll bitch about the cost. Speaking of the cost...
Yale University economist William Nordhaus recently estimated the Iraq war could cost $20,000 per household over the next 10 years.
How much is security worth?
More damaging in the long term than the staggering cost America will shoulder is Bush's squandering of the store of international goodwill built by presidents of both parties ever since the days of Woodrow Wilson.
GMAFB! The only international good will we have is because we had to save the world three times, WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. Even with that, and all the foreign aid we've given to the world, not to mention 24% of the UN budget, most of the world hates us.
Brady Kiesling, the diplomat who recently resigned from the foreign service after 20 years, bemoaned Bush's dismantling of "the most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known."
What a crock of shit!
In a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Kiesling, who served in the Middle East, Armenia and Greece, wrote: "Until this administration, it had been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my president I was also upholding the interests of the American people and the world. I believe it no longer."
Good! I'm glad you resigned. Don't let the door hit you in the ass, you worthless prick!
Sadly, for the first time in my life, neither do I.
And sadly, not for the first time in my life, I think Martha is full of shit.
Posted by denny at March 19, 2003 08:15 PM