Bush's 'Cup of Sin Has Been Filled to the Brim'

The people of the United States neither support the war in Iraq, the Bush Administration's abuse of prisoners, nor the way George W. Bush has handled domestic crises like Hurricane Katrina. According to this op-ed article from The Star of Bangladesh, any hope Bush has of resurrecting his 'presidency on life support' depends on his willingness to ' listen to alternative ways of weathering' the crisis.

By M. Abdul Hafiz, Former Director of the Bangladesh Institute of International & Strategic Studies

November 28, 2005

Original Article (English)    

It is said that old sins cast a long shadow. The shadow keeps growing longer until the sinner is visited by his or her nemesis. While it is an open question if the redoubtable George Bush is already being visited by his nemesis [his end], Americans and most of the world have been watching - some with glee and others with curiosity - the precipitous decline of his political fortunes. His cup of sin has been filled to the brim.

[Editor's Note: Nemesis is the Greek Godess of retribution].

Even though President Bush couldn't give a damn for world opinion, as he wreaks havoc on countries targeted for regime change, kills thousands of civilians including women and children, and pulverizes their infrastructure with impunity - the Americans, in hindsight, now consider Bush's pre-emptive invasions, particularly of Iraq, to have been unjustified, based on lies, and compromising much of the moral authority of their great country.

Neither do the Americans hold a favorable view of the Administration's abuse of prisoners, whether it is at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay or Bagram Air Base [Afghanistan]. That people in the United States take exception to these events and see them as a slur on American tradition was well demonstrated when the Senate recently defied the White House and voted to set new limits on interrogating detainees, in Iraq and elsewhere. As many as 46 Republicans joined the Democrats to pass the restrictions on the interrogation and treatment of prisoners.

With the fortress of the neocons crumbling, there are other signs of a conservative uprising. Some time back, angry Republican activists confronted White House officials at tense closed door meetings over the nomination of White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. This, together with American casualties - over two hundred in Afghanistan and two thousand in Iraq - have rapidly weakened the Bush presidency and have led to his current low standing. Bush's approval rating has dropped to its lowest level ever, raising concern that in the first year of his second term, George Bush may already be a "lame duck."

An analyst as sober as John Kenneth White of the Catholic University [of America] has described Bush's predicament as "a presidency on life support." Noting the precipitous drop in Bush's ratings amongst moderates and independents, White argues that the continuing problems - most notably the failing war in Iraq, the high cost of fuel and the unending stream of deficits - are likely to plague Bush indefinitely.

Nixon and Reagan, once driven by pride and arrogance, were eventually caught up in the trauma of Watergate and Iran-Contra-Gate, respectively. The first indictment of the Bush presidency has come to be known as Plamegate, after the name of a covert CIA operative, Valerie Plame. Her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, was sent to Niger to see if Iraq had purchased uranium [yellowcake] from that country. Though Wilson's report ruled this out, the president and his senior aides continued to accuse Iraq of having imported materials to make WMD - as a form of blackmail to drum up support for the Iraq invasion. When an outraged Wilson decided to speak out publicly, conservative journalists [Bob Novak], in retaliation, were informed of the identity of Wilson's wife - a serious violation of U.S. law and punishable by long prison term [10 years].

The administration's denial of involvement in the episode led to an investigation by a special prosecutor into the role of I. Lewis Libby [Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff] and others in the cover-up. The five count indictment against Libby and Karl Rove, the president's most important adviser, point to more fundamental ethical issues that are even more disturbing to Americans: Did the president and his administration knowingly lie to Congress and the people?

The whistle has also been blown by insiders like Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who was Colin Powell's right-hand man for 16 years, and as Powell's chief of staff at the State Department. Wilkerson skewered President Bush, saying that the U.S. leader was not well versed in international relations and "not much interested in them either." Wilkerson has accused Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of creating a "cabal" in the Oval office that has virtually hijacked U.S. foreign policy.

Reading between the lines of various Pentagon reports and the testimony of officials before Congress, it appears that not only are Iraqi security forces ill trained and ill equipped, they have little chance of becoming an effective force anytime soon. Of the $10.6 billion allocated to the Pentagon for equipping Iraqi forces, $7 billion has already been spent. But reports indicate that the Iraqis remain short of body armor, making them more vulnerable than their better-equipped American counterparts. How much of this vast sum of money has been misspent is difficult to know, but some independent auditing reports point to significant waste, while the general impression continues to be that in this area as in others, America's defense industries have done quite well for themselves.

On the economic front, the reports suggest that the availability of potable water, electricity and fuel for automobiles remain just as spotty as during the last days of Saddam's regime. This despite the fact that according to the American inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction, 93 percent of the $30 billion provided by the Congress had been spent, and theoretically at least, 1,837 of 2,794 reconstruction projects have been completed. The report highlights the fact that some 25 percent of the funds that have been spent have gone to the provisions of security for workers.

Domestically, the president's credibility and reputation took a massive battering after Hurricane Katrina, when his response to the crisis was shown to be not only slow and inefficient, but insensitive and callous to the pain and suffering of his fellow Americans, most of who happened to be Black and Hispanic. Much of the blame could perhaps have been laid at the door of city and state authorities, but the revelation that Federal Emergency Management Agency head was the product of Bush cronyism marred every effort of the president to reduce the suffering of the victims.

The latest polls show that the majority of Americans now believe the invasion of Iraq was wrong, and there is a public clamor, mirrored in the Congress, for setting a date for withdrawal of U.S. troops from that country. Bush's refrain that by fighting terrorists in Iraq he is defending America against further terrorist attacks now has little resonance. On the contrary, a large section of American public opinion has come out opposed to the American presence in Iraq.

The only practical and acceptable way to improve the Bush's image is for him to abandon his doctrine of pre-emptive war, advocacy of regime change and to renew America's pledge to various international treaties and understandings.

Richard Hass, a former official in both the Clinton and Bush Administrations calls for an "integration doctrine." In his latest book The Opportunity: America's Moment to Alter History's Course, Hass suggests that it would serve U.S. interests to abandon the hubristic idea of its indispensability and temper its unilateralism with pragmatic, mutually beneficial cooperation with emerging centers of powers. Hass also points out that while "the U.S. does not need the world's permission to act, it does need the world's support to succeed."

But will anyone in President Bush's fraying administration listen to alternative ways of weathering its crisis?