I remember 9/11 quite vividly as I'm sure do most folks. I recall an apathetic ideology toward Bush at that time. On September 20th, Bush made a speech essentially saying that he intended to rid the world of evil.[Note: He didn't say this per se. What he said was that Al Qaeda was evil and he would rid the world of all the Al Qaedas.]
Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. (Applause.)
I remember turning to my wife and in a deadpan voice said, "This guy's an idiot." It wasn't the last time during that speech that I uttered this statement.
I think we can agree that a major tenet of atheists is the Inconsistent Triad. As well a major tenet of would be evil extinguishers is divine right.
The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them. (Applause.) Fellow citizens, we'll meet violence with patient justice -- assured of the rightness of our cause, and confident of the victories to come.
At this point my wife turned to me and said, "What an idiot."
Flash forward a sixteen months or so. My initial angst turned to puzzlement. Was this clearly neocon idol one of dumbest president's we've ever had (never mind Hoover) or was he one of the shrewdest? He and his selected hawks had certainly concocted one the most effective inculcate spin-doctors that this generation has ever seen. That much can't be argued.
Certainly Bush was pushing for re-election at this point in time. But the one time in American history that a president tried to govern by the popular opinion of Americans failed dramatically. As did, say, the Roman Empire.
It's hard to imagine what the collective Bush regime must be thinking about au courant. I guess we might never know dubya's motivation behind the destruction of Iraq. Was it one of pure hubris? What we do know is that the administration is coming under an increasing amount of fire these days and from some top republicans at that. Pressure to explain his administration. Pressure to explain, well, anything.
I believe a certain glimmer of hope is slowly but surely emerging. You can fool some of the people all of the time....If GW has any brains at all (and the jury is still out on that one) he can't think that he is that invincible. Or can he? He reminds me right now of a certain other president, who thought he was invincible as well. Does the name Richard Nixon ring any bells?
I am steadfastly sticking to my optimistic viewpoint that a collective American people aren't all that gullible. Let's pray I'm right.
3:36:35 PM 
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Welcome To The Club
