George The Brash Hearted

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