I liked George Bush until 9/11...

...I really did. I liked that he cut taxes (I would have preferred that he cut taxes on everyone, not just the rich, but I figured it was a start). I liked that he intended to limit the size and scale of government and that he intended to conduct a more "humble" foreign policy. Those things all spoke to my libertarian leanings. (Actually, they were more than just "leanings"; I was a card-carrying, dues-paying member of the Libertarian Party and had voted for its candidates since1992. I even collected signatures once to get candidates on the ballot, but that's a subject for another posting.) I also thought Al Gore was incredibly annoying and the ultimate Washington phony (another subject for another time.) And, even though neither one of us drank beer anymore, if I did I would have rather had one with Bush than Gore or most anyone else in public life. He really did seem like a regular guy.

So what happened on 9/11? Well we all know what happened on 9/11. A bunch of fanatical Muslims hijacked four jets and flew three of them into buildings killing themselves and thousands of other people. Unbelievable. But it happened. And if I were a Hollywood producer and someone came to me with a script like that I would have turned it down as too implausible. But after the initial shock and after dealing with the immediate effects of the crisis, the first and most important question anyone should have asked is simply, "Why did this happen?" And to Bush's credit, he did ask this question. Actually he asked the corollary question, "Why do they hate us?" And he flubbed it. In what could have served as a "teachable moment," as they say nowadays, he totally flubbed it and began the process of throwing his whole presidency away. 9/11 was his opportunity for greatness. Most presidents don't get them. Clinton, for example, never had a great event like the Civil War or Pearl Harbor to allow him to achieve greatness. He is destined to be a footnote in history, probably the worst fate a president can suffer. But Bush was given this opportunity, and like Charlie Brown, he backed up to catch the fly ball hit to him and watched it go in and out of his mitt. Ugh!

After asking the question that should have become the subject of a national conversation, Bush instead muttered some drivel about how they "hate us for our freedoms...blah, blah, blah..."

What if Bush had been honest and said "They hate us at least in part because of our actions?" He would have been tarred and feathered, that's what. Understandably, the country was hurting and in no mood for introspection, much less the truth. If someone punches you in the face, you don't ask why, you punch him back. Only after a little time has passed do you ask why he did that and did your actions contribute at all. But the President shouldn't be an average person, despite what Sarah Palin thinks. The President is the Commander-in-Chief and the leader of the free world. In short, it's a big job that requires a big person. And a big person would have the courage (and intellectual curiosity) to ask such a question and begin a national conversation so that we could assess exactly where we were and where we intended to go.

U. S. foreign policy in the Middle East revolves around two things: Israel and oil. Everything else is just a distraction. The Cold War used to be a factor, but only in so far as it related to Israel and oil. And the Muslim world hates us for the way we've acted to support Israel and maintain our access to Middle Eastern oil. What actions are those, exactly? Well for starters, we support autocratic regimes that oppress and torture their own people, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia (where most of the hijackers came from), and Iran under the Shah. The Iranian "students" didn't seize the U. S. embassy out of the blue, they seized it after decades of resentment toward the U. S. for backing the Shah, a brutal dictator (not unlike Saddam Hussein). This included putting the Shah in power after the CIA-engineered coup that deposed the democratically-elected Mohammed Mosaddeq.

There's a lot more to say on this subject and I want to be very careful how I say it because I think it's a very important topic. But I don't know how to save pieces without posting them so I'll have to continue this later. Sorry, readers.