American Entropy: Bush and his 7 sins

07 November 2005

Bush and his 7 sins

By Juan Cole, read here. Sin number 1...

Pride. On May 2, 2003, Bush landed on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit to declare the end of major combat in Iraq. From the staged character of the event (the aircraft carrier was just offshore and there was no need to fly out to it), to the famous codpiece flight suit (which was intended to exude machismo), to the banner "Mission Accomplished," the entire event was suffused with overweening pride.

Major combat was, of course, not then over, and is not over in fall of 2005. Bush compounded his pridefulness with a speech on July 2, 2003, when he addressed the growing guerrilla movement in Iraq and said, "Bring'em on!"

This unfortunate taunting of a deadly and determined enemy was the farthest thing possible from either statesmanship or the gravity with which a commander in chief must view the dangers encompassing his troops.

It was pride that led Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz to believe that they could occupy Iraq with a relatively small military force, and could then transform the country without facing any significant opposition. It was pride that led them to disregard the advice of distinguished military men such as Gen. Eric Shinseki and Gen. Anthony Zinni.

Go read the rest.

Posted by Geoff

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