George The Brash Hearted

Brashness from the powerful can be devastating, but to many of America's young and active people, it has become a desirable attribute and a quality they look for in their heroes and role models. It follows that many public personalities assume brash characteristics for the express purpose of enhancing their image with the emerging generation without having to try very hard.

Photo: George The Brash Hearted

Dictionaries are merciless in their definition of this word. Hasty, impetuous, presumptuously forward, lacking in sensitivity and, are some of the few terms of reference that we were able to unearth, despite our honest effort at finding a positive uplifting meaning to this simple term.

The borrowers of brash characteristics have a distinct advantage over the true and honest exponents of brash behavior. The naturals have orientations which tend to sink to the depths of ultra brashness and provide the image of an uningratiating persona, the kind most of us try to avoid at gatherings, but who always seem to find us wherever we may be hiding.

The facsimile brashers on the other hand are capable of creating a brash image to suit their individual tastes and likings, as well as adopt the image, which in their view is most suitable for their current environment, or has a greater potential for their own desired result.

Frank Sinatra as a young frail and apprehensive singer in his very first film appearance, sang a song called " Saturday night is the loneliest night of the week" in a soft, subdued, almost timid manner, which we must assume was his natural personality at the time. Needless to say that his later style and personality evolved by design into the Chairman of the Board that he became and that we remember. Calculated brashness must have been his catalyst of choice to achieve such a transformation.

Brashness, however, is more than an appearance characteristic. It is also and perhaps foremost, a state of mind, which can influence every act, thought, and decision that people make on a daily basis, and as a natural personality attribute, it is present for the duration.

A naturally brash person is inevitably also a rash person and will tend to jump to a conclusion on matters needing decisions or conclusions, and inversely, will brashly dismiss viewpoints and ideas in conflict with his own.

Some outstanding examples of brash actions come to mind:

The commander of a nuclear submarine carrying political guests, and while wishing to impress them with a rapid ascent, sinking a boatload of Japanese tourists.

The many incidents of friendly fire, by young warriors too anxious to be heroes. The shooting of a South-American student in London, when presumed to be a terrorist, The recent shooting of a plain clothed policeman by a uniformed officer, in a crowd control situation.

These are all terrible, unfortunate circumstances that would not have occurred had the responsible parties been capable of more reflection, and less impulsive behavior. Fortunately those parties responsible for these incidents were limited to their immediate surroundings in their capacity to create disasters.

That is not the case with George W. Bush. He has been able to reach into the depths of brash decision-making and the results have shaken the world to its liquid core.

He has a mind set typically devoid of the ability to reflect, to ponder, to analyze, and is set on a course of action, the ultimate militant conservative cause, which he will allow to ferment into whatever toxic brew his doctrinaire course can force a gullible public to swallow.

Brash people do not engage in deliberations, they tend to arrive at conclusions without wasting precious time, and so are too often guided by hunches and prejudices.

The war in Iraq is a disaster of a magnitude, which may well at some point in time be recognized as the beginning of the end of America's political, economical, and even military dominance on this planet. The reign will have been shortlived.

This deeply imbedded fundamental personal flaw of George W. Bush has caused him throughout his public life to make brash decisions, and the same condition coupled with irrepressible self-esteem, prohibits him from acknowledging errors or the need for additional reflection.

It is believed that the invasion of Iraq was carried in the mind of George W. Bush well before his unfortunate ascent to the Presidency. More than five years later, he is still able to whisk aside on a daily basis, all counter opinions which so dramatically prove him wrong.

He can expulse from his mind all thoughts of personal responsibility concerning the daily announcements of US military casualties.

The hardships and substantial losses of life suffered by the innocents of Iraq are even more easily set aside, when in fact, despite the pretence of having initiated a war to liberate Iraqis from a Killer President, recent statistics indicate that the actions of Occupying President Bush have caused the death of more Iraqis on a per day average basis than did his predecessor Saddam Hussein.

Having brashly rejected the Kyoto accord and unable to rethink any of his unmeditated decisions, he is not about to let a few vagrant wild ladies named Katrina AndRita change the course of his decision.

For lack of any in-depth knowledge of the Arabic people, he brashly concluded that the liberated Iraqis would embrace western culture and political structures, when in truth, it appears that he may have accommodated the creation a new Islamic State.

He brashly "tells it like it is not", to Americans and the World, and will continue to do so indefinitely, since that is the method of action he has adopted, and admittedly, it has served him well, till now. He and his mentors, however, must surely be dismayed of late by the fact that the persistent repetition of his errant messages is perplexing even to ranking conservatives.

Notwithstanding the numerous other hidden agendas attributed to George W. Bush, the brash and unreflective Iraq invasion may have had as a major contributing factor his hell-bent determination to open the floodgates of military spending, and thereby fulfill his and his fellow Hawks' perennial yearning for an all-powerful Military Industrial Complex.

Many people who have high aspirations often select a successful role model, and openly follow in his footsteps. It is unlikely however that there could be anyone that George W. Bush would have selected, that could have inspired him to be the person that he later became.

He should possibly have selected Dwight D. Eisenhower as a role model. This would have been consistent with his conservative leanings and he might also have admired Eisenhower's terse style and quickness of thought.

Had he done so, he very likely would have been aware that when it came time for President Dwight D. Eisenhower to retire, after a lifetime of military experience and the Presidency, he left public life in 1961 with these incredibly wise and profound thoughts:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. And also, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed."

These were some of the final public thoughts of the greatest natural leader to have occupied the Whitehouse, a man with a lifetime of personal involvement in warfare and military procurement, and a man who never had to say "Trust me on this".

George W. Bush may have been made aware of these words of wisdom, but, of course, . he would characteristically have dismissed them.

Paul Forest
Burlington
Vermont