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Cut and rug
By Emile Hallez
ehallez@mscd.edu

If America were a giant rug, George Bush would be a puppy – an ugly puppy, not yet housetrained, with a penchant for scooting on rugs.
Objectors to capping troop deployment in Iraq, and to the war in general, are circling in political waters, dorsal fins breaking the surface. While some have been bold enough to leap out, decrying a megalomaniac’s unmerited violence, most are lying low, leaving bystanders to guess their intentions.

Like a captain going down with the ship, Bush has clung to a militant legacy, taking his crew of neoconservative rug-scooting pooches along. Congress knows this, and that’s why few want to make waves. But this is a bigger problem for the extra troops – Bush having promised 21,500 more – that started deploying last week. Many of them will not come home.

Since there is no way to “win” in Iraq via immediate troop withdrawal, it is apparent that those speaking out are saying enough is enough. That’s the trouble with meeting Bush’s challenge; it can’t be done. Worse, it’s hypocritical – he begs us to get his own skid marks out of the carpet.

The idea of success in any war is an ironic fallacy. This war, however, is special. Protestors have touted the “No more blood for oil” stance since the invasion began. Simultaneously, conservatives adapted their goal from counterterrorism to a humanitarian mission of Iraqi liberation. As tempting as these reasons seem, they are smokescreens for a fascist’s sick idea of saving face.

In an open letter to the president, Ralph Nader recently wrote, “You say ‘where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.’ You then quickly change the subject. Whoa now, what does it mean when you say the responsibility for mistakes rest with you?”

In any democracy, a president should represent the people, not oppose their collective will. Recent polls show Bush’s approval rating is somewhere between the toilet and the water treatment plant. If the majority of the country disapproves of the war and of extra troop deployment, how does he justify pursuit of an impossible victory?

Our only hope in the immediate future is to resist the apathy that has been characteristic of the past six years. Hiding idly behind a flag is pathetic acquiescence.

We can’t wait until January 2009.