2 posts tagged “bush”

Distressing as it is, the President has declared himself martial witness to truth and right cause as AP states:

WASHINGTON - President Bush, on a collision course with Congress over Iraq, said Friday "I'm the decision-maker" about sending more troops to the war. He challenged skeptical lawmakers not to prematurely condemn his buildup.

"I've picked the plan that I think is most likely to succeed," Bush said in an Oval Office meeting with senior military advisers.

Just a couple of things:  one, this is not a Republican/Democrat thing...this is about right and wrong.  Two, we are the decision makers.  If the mid term elections said anything, it's not that we want all the red/blue state maps redecorated, but that we as a nation do not want the fearful incompetence of this present administration to decide anything.  It's a Republic, something that the Republican in Chief has long forgotten, if he ever knew at all. 

Three, there is no such concept as the premature condemnation of the President's plan.  As noted Jan 22, in the New Yorker Magazine:

This was the advice given by McGeorge Bundy* to Lyndon Johnson in a memo dated February 7, 1965 [yes, you read that correctly], concerning an escalation plan for Vietnam that Bundy thought might have as little as 25% chance of success:

Even if it fails, the policy will be worth it.  At a minimum, it will damp down the charge that we did not do all that we could have done, and this charge will be important in many countries, including our own."

The President's plan has been condemned for the last 42 years.  In my book, the sudden resurgence of criticism doesn't quite qualify as "premature."

So what do we do?  I have to think about it, but I have some ideas...coming up next!

addendum:  HR at emergingsideways tipped me towards zefrank's show re: this.  Check it out. 

* this is a flagrant criticism of a blue government official...conspiracy diluted.

What is life but a platform where we air our thoughts and feelings?  Quite a bit (to say the least), but it's hard to do a whole lot more on a blog.  It has been difficult not writing; not having that typepad identity, regardless how appropriate.  Needless to say, two more lapsed quarters in seminary, umpteen books, and a world that keeps moving towards globalism and uniformity and I still have the desire for a place to air my stuff.

So suffer a while with me if you will.  I'm going to try voxing here on the free version typepad.  It's cute.  I'll give it that, but cute might be all I need.  Functionality can come later.  I just need a net to catch some thought-filled butterflies that flutter around in my head. 

While on typepad, I struggled with two things:  what to say and what you would think if I said it.  I'm getting over that right now.  I've stayed away from politics in the past because they are such hot issues, but my faith thrives in the heat.  Not in the red/blue schism, but the right/wrong split.  Like Isaiah standing before an all powerful Ahaz, the gospel breathes life into all aspects of living.  Life is not political.  Politics are simply a part of living and if we've learned at all from Jim Wallis, it's that our walk with Christ must transcend dual party politic and encumber itself with Kingdom perspective. 

So, prophetically and vindictively (I'm still a sinful cuss):  When this particular President took office, knowing his performance as governor in a single state, I said...more like proclaimed...This is a President who will "Go Down in History" period.  What we suffered in the Lone Star State, we have suffered together as a nation and no amount of chain forwarded email from beyond the grave will convince me otherwise.

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