No Reason

I've started reading Al Gore's book, Assault on Reason. While an increasing number of Americans are finally expressing their collective loss of confidence in the President, his administration, and their policies in Iraq, in the "war on terror", foreign policy, domestic policy, and the destruction of fiscal responsibility, Gore systematically and coherently shows how they got us here, and how we (the Public) let them, following like sheep and believing every unsubstantiated untruth used to justify their actions. We are just as responsible, along with our media, because it is us that swallowed every dire warning about how we needed to bring the war to the terrorists, that Saddam was behind 9/11, that it was and will always be a fight against the evildoers, that you're either with us or against us.

Bush needs to reduce every situation and decision to simplistic language, often in very black and white terms without any nuances. He does not listen to points or evidence contrary to whatever belief he may hold on a subject. He stubbornly holds on to those beliefs no matter what the outcome may be. While this in itself is a simplistic analysis (read Gore's book for the comprehensive one), it does explain the quagmire we now find ourselves in. More than 3500 dead servicemen and women. Tens of thousands maimed for life. More than that with significant psychological problems that may last a lifetime. Yet the Administration blithely goes on, now vetoing any congressional bill that would force the President to start a logical and phased withdrawal. We've created one hell of a mess that will take years, and maybe generations, to fix. And there's so much to fix. Our standing in the world as a moral authority (now pretty much gone). Our economic status (maybe not teetering on the brink, but sure leveraged to the hilt).