This weekend, the Washington Post asked President George W. Bush: "Why hasn't anyone been held accountable, either through firings or demotions, for what some people see as mistakes or misjudgments [on Iraq]?" "Well, we had an accountability moment," Bush responded, "and that's called the 2004 election. And the American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me, for which I'm grateful."
1. How could the election be a referendum on Iraq when both major candidates supported not just the war in Iraq, but the incorrect presumptions that led to the war? 2. Exit polls showed Iraq to be a loser for Bush. Voters who chose Iraq as their most important issue swung for Kerry over Bush 73 percent to 26 percent. 3. The electorate can't hold the secretary of defense or the director of central intelligence accountable. George Bush can, but has refused to do so. The electorate can hold Bush accountable for what happened on his watch, but what happened on his watch also includes tax cuts, placing conservative judges on the bench, and a host of other popular stances that has offset the unpopularity of the colossal intelligence mess-ups over Iraq.
In other words, Bush's answer to the Washington Post's question doesn't hold water. CBS has fired more employees in its memogate scandal--four more to be exact--than George W. Bush has fired in his administration's intelligence debacles on Iraq.
Cabinet secretaries and heads of agencies usually don't get fired; they resign for "personal reasons," e.g., Tenet.
That happens, Brad, but there is no evidence what you insinuate happened in Tenet's instance. Didn't Bush just award the guy the highest honor the government can bestow upon a civilian, the Medal of Freedom?
Dan stole my thunder regarding Tenent.
And Dan is right on the election too - that on Iraq the American people really didn't have a choice. Of the two "alternatives" one took us there in the first place while the other insisted it was a mistake to go in, but that we had to "stay the course".
I am very concerned over the possibility that Bush and the neoconservatives in his Administration are going to use his election victory as proof of a "mandate" for a continued Iraq occupation and wider war against Syria, Iran, and other regimes in the Arab world in the name of "democracy".
Ad hoc scenario No. 1: Bush does not want to fire Tenet for PR reasons, and so forces him to step down under the guise of "personal reasons." As a condition of his resignation, which will undoubtedly be (and in fact was) viewed as a consequence of prewar intelligence failures, Tenet negotiates the Medal of Freedom award to provide some credibility to his stated reasons for leaving.
As far as I know, this is completely fanciful. It is, nonetheless, a plausible explantion. If you believe, as most do, that Tenet was forced out, then the award must be reconciled with that.
Bush has not forced anyone's resignation (that we know of clearly) nor fired anyone. Apparently the administration prefers the sly method of making life in the WH so uncomfortable that they want to leave, as happened w/ Powell who was sick of being treated like dirt by the neocons and ignored by Bush.
I think we should combine Dan's comments with the fact that Bush has not vetoed a single piece of legislateion passed by Congress since he has taken office. Of course, someone could claim that since he the GOP has controlled congress during his presidency that there has been no cause for him to veto anything. I for one, however, think that the two together (no firings and no vetoes) are illustrations of how irresponsible and bad a president he has been.
He seems to value loyalty over competency, integrity, or responsibility. I am actually somewhat sympathetic to that scale of values actually. There is nothing wrong with rallying around a friend in their defense against "outsiders." However, an inability to admit mistakes and then change course when realistically necessary puts loyalty to friends above the common good, which is a mistake in the context of government. If Bush would change policies w/o sacking people that would be fine by me. I have no problem w/ publicly defending your friends while privately castigating them, that would be an honorable approach actually.
There is more to the story than the US messup on itelligence re Iraq. The whole world UN et al were messedup. So dont blame bush anymore than anyone else.
The Bush Brigade
The influence of George W. Bush on the American psyche is unequaled. He has been able to convince the American people to attack a country that has taken no action against America. His ability to influence has now obviously become international, as the 120,000 trained Iraqi defenders of freedom have studied George W. Bush's military history. The approach of the Iraqi Bush Brigade is to sign up with the military or police and then do everything possible to avoid combat. If Bush is successful in influencing the entire world there will be no armies for combat and peace will reign. Thank you President Bush; I didn't understand your plan when you first avoided combat in Viet Nam.
Among the right wing political and religious elements of the United States there is a concerted effort to rewrite history to support their belief that America was founded as a Christian nation, even though the U.S. Constitution contains no mention of Christianity or Jesus Christ.
While some of the early Colonies did establish governments based on various religions, those same religious based colonies practiced religious intolerance and persecution. The same things they came to America to escape. When it became necessary to band together to separate from England the leaders and great thinkers of the time stepped forward to help outline a form of government divorced from the bigotry of religious favoritism.
Luckily a large group of free thinkers who where Deists (Free Masons) and not Christians won the day and religion was kept from dominating the government of the United States.
In the early days of the United States the Pope was vocal about his opposition to the non-Christian Deists in the United States and clear on his insistence that the Church should control the government. This is the same Church that today harbors pedophiles and moves them from one community another with out warning the community, giving these sick people a new pool of children to pray on. The rest of the Christian community says nothing about it and George Bush the great Christian and war hero says nothing about it.
All George Bush has to say are frightening things like, "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job", and supports the inclusion of religious doctrines in the teaching of science in public schools. My greatest fear is that, as a representative of the extremist right wing of Christianity, Bush feels that the second coming of Christ will take place once the war of Armageddon takes place in the middle east. I don't what to be part of his perverted religious philosophy. Get Religion Out Of Government.
