“But is he lucky?” Napoleon once asked about a general whose name was put forward for promotion. The French emperor knew the value of luck in war and leadership. It might be fun to speculate what the reply would have been if the officer’s name had been George Bush Jnr, for history is not likely to look back kindly at Bush Jnr’s years in the White House. The war in Iraq, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and soaring gas prices are starting to show signs of strain on the president, who must be cursing his own bad run of luck.
Under the Bush administration America experienced its worst terrorist attack, which consequently led to the dual wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Then, though through no fault of his, the president lost an entire city to a storm that devastated parts of the southern United States, blowing away 400,000 jobs and causing damages worth billions.
In his “war on terror” Bush connected the dotted lines from the ashes of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon to the center of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. That was after the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam was supposed to posses could not be found. That was when the neo-con sultans of hype changed the discourse from looking for WMD to “fighting the war on terror.”
The current logic for the war is that the United States can “fight the terrorists in Iraq rather than in New York City.” That there were no insurgents roaming the streets of Baghdad, Basra or Mosul blowing up troops, police stations and killing innocent people during before the U.S. invasion has been lost in the shuffle of cards holding truth, fiction, reality and lies.
Until now President George W. Bush has managed to convince a large segment of the American public that invading Iraq was the right thing to do after 9/11. But that is proving harder to do, and his numbers in the polls have dropped. The president currently has a 48% approval rating and an equal 48% disapproval. That is a huge drop from the 80% approval rating he enjoyed immediately after Sept. 11.
But while the Bush administration still believes a military solution in Iraq is possible, along comes a foe far mightier than the terrorists: Mother Nature. If the terrorists took out some buildings, Hurricane Katrina nearly wiped out New Orleans, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people, sending them fleeing to the safety of neighboring cities, to the state capital of Baton Rouge or to next-door Houston, Texas. And only weeks later, Rita hits the Texas coast, sending millions onto the highways and roads, creating the largest exodus and traffic jams in US history.
Rebuilding from the damage caused by Katrina is going to cost billions to the American tax payer; one estimate is as high as $2 billion per day, or as the Christian Science Monitor puts it, “about 10 times the amount the United States is spending on military operations in Iraq.”
Now add to that the cost of the war in Iraq, which currently runs at about $196 billion and counting … counting at the rate of some $151,000 per MINUTE, according to costofwar.com.
As comedian Bill Maher only-half joked on his show a few weeks ago while talking about the president’s run of bad luck, said: “On your watch, we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two Trade Centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you’re just not lucky! I’m not saying you don’t love this country. I’m just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side. So, yes, God does speak to you, and what he’s saying is, ‘Take a hint.’”
But if there are any hints Bush is taking they’re certainly not from Bill Maher or any other liberal pundit. Bush, analysts say, heeds the advise of his neo-con advisers, particularly Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
In almost every recent speech the president has delivered recently, he has said that he has a strategy for Iraq. However, he stops short of telling us what that strategy is.
Right, lets talk economics, seeing that this is a business-oriented magazine. Coming right up on the heels of Katrina is her evil sister Rita, also a category five hurricane. Rita, storm watchers say, will accomplish two things.
First, it is likely to damage the oil refineries on the Gold Coast that were missed by Katrina. Second, it will cause the price of oil to soar even higher than it’s current $3.50 a gallon. Now that is certainly not what Napoleon was looking for in a leader.
