Gifting the Enemy

Kaboom is a frighteningly possible result of the irony that Iran could be ruled by an overcompensating mediocrity psychotically convinced he’s God’s medium and prophet who’s been designated by God to spark Armegeddon, but because America has one too, and he’s already spent his credibility, our overcompensating mediocrity psychotically convinced he’s God’s medium and prophet actively encourages and strengthens theirs, making Armegeddon all that more likely. Ahmadinejad might be the next Hitler, with daydreams of obliterating Israel and the will to pursue those dreams, and the American public might need the proper preparation for confronting this real threat, but how can our overcompensating mediocrity psychotically convinced he’s God’s medium and prophet convince us to face a possible Armegeddon after his sustained and calculated and dishonest demonizing of the truly evil but puny Saddam as the devil incarnate?

By weakening and mismanaging America’s military, revealing to allies and adversaries alike the eroded capacity of military options to solve geopolitical problems in a unipolar and rapidly globalizing world; by sacrificing on the altar of his own legacy the vast accumulation of soft power the United States had banked after the fall of the Soviet Union; by increasing the prestige of terrorists both within their organizations and increasingly in the general populations of their home countries through ineptitude in fighting them; and by waging a war in which no American of privilege has been asked to make the sacrifices necessary in times of war, George Bush has not only diminished that American superiority so cherished by jingoists, he has crippled his, and possibly future presidents’ capability to both confront militarily genuine crises and to rally the American public.

How are we safer? I’m asking. Iran and its overcompensating mediocrity may look at an emasculated America and think, You want to play chicken? Let’s play chicken, and rush to build nuclear warheads and the missiles to deliver them. Attacking Iranian nuclear installations now just might be an appropriate response by a president who’s not an overcompensating mediocrity psychotically convinced he’s God’s medium and prophet who’s already spent his credibility, but that’s not who’s president. He’s the enemies’ best weapon. They’re bolder and stronger because George Bush is president. Tell me, how are we safer?