What Is Needed Is a National Moment of Truth

Yesterday, Bob Herbert said in his Op/Ed piece in the New York Times, “There must be a leader somewhere who can shake the U.S. out of this tragic hypnotic state, who can see that it is beyond crazy to continue our involvement in this war indefinitely, to sacrifice another 1,000 young lives, and then another thousand after that," He said, “The war has been an exercise in futility and mind-boggling incompetence.” He said, “This war is not worth fighting.” He called the war in Iraq “criminal”. He said, “All of the tortured, twisted rationales for this war — all of the fatuous intellectual pyrotechnics dreamed up to justify it — have vaporized, and we’re left with just the mad, mindless, meaningless and apparently endless slaughter.” And everything Bob Herbert said so eloquently is true. But “a leader somewhere” is not what is needed. What is needed is a moment of clarity when the good men and women who can change things realize that they can no longer be silent. There has been an unspoken covenant between the mainstream media, the people in Congress and the movers and shakers around the world that they will not speak publicly about the fact that President George W. Bush is insane. But the fact that George W. Bush has descended into madness has been known by anyone who has had contact with him for at least four years, and for probably as long as the past six years. Arrogance has been the defining characteristic of the Bush administration. And it is this arrogance that has lead everyone behind the George W. Bush throne to believe they can control him. It is folly to think you can give anyone (and certainly not a psychopath) the unlimited powers that the GOP gave to President Bush and at the same time believe the recipient of those unlimited powers can be restrained. It was thought by the Bush-minders that he could be pacified by his surrogate mommies--Condoleezza Rice, Karen Hughes and Harriet Miers. Karen Hughes is no longer in the inner circle and Harriet Miers just quit (or got fired). It was believed Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Karl Rove could control him. Wherever Karl Rove may be, he certainly is not controlling the president and Bush was forced to fire Rumsfeld. Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney have to maintain the fiction that the president is really the president. It was part of the original contract the GOP made when the Republican power brokers agreed to elevate a troubled and delusional man to the presidency of the United States. But Rice and Cheney are no longer in control of George W. Bush. And George W. Bush is out of control. A national moment of truth is needed. Not a cover up, not more lies. All the people who know George W. Bush is a dangerous psychopath must say so. And they must demand his removal from office. Will the United States crumble and fall? No. Will the earth’s magnetic poles shift? No. Will the entire Republican Party lose face? You can bet your sweet ass it will. But we survived Joe McCarthy and we survived Richard Nixon and we survived Bill Clinton not being able to keep his libido in check. We can survive Cheney stepping down and being replaced by someone who will be president until the 2008 election. And we can survive a president being removed because he’s a dangerous megalomaniacal psychopath.