Also published at Democratic Underground.
I don’t believe the President is at ease.
George W. Bush’s staff assures us that he is calm, serene, and confident despite massive global resistance to his policies, because he knows he is right. If this were true, the arrogance and lack of respect for popular opinion would be astounding. The lack of doubt, hesitation, or humility might even be called, as some have called it, psychopathic.
Far be it from me to suggest that our President is sane, but hear me out.
Some report that Bush manages to stay tranquil because he doesn’t view attacking Iraq as a decision at all, but as an “historical inevitability,” and because he views himself as engaged in a religious battle for “good” and against “evil.” Perhaps he believes that his God has instructed him to attack Iraq, and therefore the question of whether to do so need not stress him out.
Clearly such delusional motivations can lead to real-world damage. Witness the faith-based attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, for example.
But in most cases, such delusions are far from complete and are indicative of doubt and grave misgivings. Some of the strongest of religious believers have doubts and “crises of faith” about their belief in God, though they never doubt many more ordinary beliefs, such as that the White House is white.
Bush did not begin this push for a war by talking about historical inevitability and having no choice in the matter. On the contrary, he focused on specific reasons, such as alleged meetings between Iraq and Al Qaeda, alleged Iraqi plans to attack U.S. imperial troops or even the “homeland,” alleged Iraqi weapons programs, and even the need to “liberate” Iraq by bombing it, or the need to maintain U.S. power by following through on a threat.
As these claims have failed to gain credibility, Bush’s push for war has continued, but it has been drawn out longer than he can possibly have intended. Karl Rove is not an idiot, and this endless threat of war has been the most politically idiotic thing a White House has tried in years, allowing thoughtful opposition to grow before any bombing (and the accompanying patriotism) begins.
That various reasons for the war have been abandoned without Bush’s lust for war diminishing does not mean that he didn’t partially convince himself of those reasons while they lasted, or even still. Whatever his primary motivations may be (oil, military spending, empire, revenge, votes) he undoubtedly to some degree has also believed the various public reasons that have come and gone.
Bush has now substituted for those reasons an ever more religious rhetoric, disclaiming responsibility, viewing himself as the hand of fate inevitably confronting “evil” with “good.” This is the language of someone struggling to believe something. Just as we believe in Heaven because we can’t bear the death of loved ones, Bush believes in the inevitability of bombing Iraq because he can’t bear the idea of failing to kill Saddam Hussein.
It’s not just the religiosity of his language that makes me doubt Bush’s serenity. Another factor is his graying hair. Remember how much brown was still on the head of candidate George W. back in 2000? This President has set a record for vacations and short work days, and yet his photos tell a story that doesn’t fit with the claim that he is serene.
Another factor is Bush’s increasing inability to put on a presentable performance for a press conference. Not only does he flub his lines, but he reveals secrets, such as the degree to which an entire event has been scripted. Is he perhaps tired of keeping secret his doubts, the ones that he keeps secret even from himself?
I don’t think it’s too far fetched a fantasy to imagine that some day soon a reporter will ask the President at a press conference a question that breaks through the fa