Does George Bush Think Americans Are Idiots?

Probably.

Let's look at two excerpts from the President's weekly radio address and see, shall we? By the way, the excerpts are courtesy of CNN:

"We went to war because we were attacked, and we are at war today because there are still people out there who want to harm our country and hurt our citizens."

Now, this statement would be true across the board, IF he was speaking about our foray into Afghanistan, and the wider campaign against terrorism. But Bush is speaking about Iraq, because his approval rating numbers on Iraq are fast falling through the basement and into the septic tank. Iraq attacked us? When?

For those of us who may have forgotten, here's why (in order) we invaded Iraq, and why the Administration had to abandon the reason:

1. Iraq had WMDs. False; Iraq had no such weapons in 2002, or in 2003.

2. Iraq had conspired with al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks. False; the 9/11 Commission found that there was no link between the Hussein Government and al Qaeda (in fact, there is evidence that the two loathed each other). Further, most of the hijackers who turned four airliners into piloted cruise missiles were from our Ally, Chief Oil Source and (therefore) Extremely Good Friend, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

3. Iraq was training terrorists. Partially true. The Kurdish peshmerga ran training camps in the north, and one high-value terrorist planner was holed up in Baghdad. But the peshmerga looked to us for moral, if not material, support in their struggle against Saddam.

4. We had to remove Saddam. False; Saddam was contained. The United States has supported, subsidized and trained vicious thugs and right-wing dictators for decades. Shall I call the roll?
Fulgencio Batista
Manuel Noriega
Anastasio Somoza
Shah Reza Pahlavi of Iran
Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti
Augusto Pinochet
Osama bin Laden
... and the list goes on.

5. We want to set up a democracy in the Middle East. Wait a minute here: Isn't Israel a democracy? How about Turkey?

The reason I say that I list these reasons "in order" is because as one reason was found to be near-total codswallop, the Administration dropped it and brought up a new reason. My apologies, Mr. President; a growing number of Americans are not buying it any more. They see (although obviously you cannot) more and more stalwart men and women being brought home injured, mutilated, haunted or dead. Eligible highschoolers are starting to vote with their feet, as they walk away from recruiting stations.

A growing number of people (including politicians on both sides of the ever-expanding political divide) are now calling for a withdrawal of our troops, or at least a timetable for such a withdrawal. There are signs of slippage in unit morale among our soldiers in Iraq, if the recent fragging incident in Tikrit is any indication.

Bush's answer? "Their (the terrorists') goal is to get us to leave before Iraqis have had a chance to show the region what a government that is elected and truly accountable to its citizens can do for its people."

Bush also counters with a tired argument that a schedule for withdrawal will only further embolden the terrorists.

The terrorists are already emboldened; they can strike with impunity and inflict a great amount of damage on civilians, police, Iraqi soldiers and US troops alike. And there always seem to be more of them - and not all of them are foreign troublemakers. As for the "government that is elected and truly accountable to its citizens," that government knows, deep in the hearts of all of its members, that they are dead. They were dead when they took the job. The instant we leave, they will be targets.

This war has poisoned civil political discourse in this country, and it has almost totally destroyed whatever moral ascendancy we could hope to claim in the world. Let us pull the troops out and give them the triumphal parades they richly deserve.

Let us bring the troops home.