"'CHATTER' HINTS AT AN IMMINENT U.S. AIRSTRIKE AGAINST IRAN"

headline to an op-ed piece by daniel sneider of the san jose mercury news, reprinted yesterday in the miami herald.

the text was not as hopeful as the headline. the chatter turned out to be from think-tank intelligentsia types not administration officials, but combined with the newsweek mini-article several weeks ago and the presumed emboldenment that the election gave bush, it raises hope.

bush has got four years to mark his 43rd presidency with a legacy. bush is a legacy. he should now be proactive in creating one for himself. that will require boldness, clarity, and "the vision thing."

the opportunity is there. on september 11, 2001 the united states was losing more lives to a foreign attack on its own soil than it had ever lost before.

saddam hussein, who had tried to assasinate george h.w. bush, who had gassed his own people, and those of iran, and who had been close to acquiring a nuclear weapon in the '90's was in power in iraq.

the taliban, the most ruthless, mad regime since pol pot's khmer rouge was in control in afghanistan and giving safe haven to osama bin laden and al qaeda.

libya and muhammar qadaffi were refusing to cooperate with wmd inspectors.

today, saddam hussein is in prison and his regime ousted. the hopeful among us look forward to free elections in iraq in january.

in afganistan, the taliban has been utterly routed and free and fair elections--more problem-free than those in florida in 2000--have already taken place.

after regime change took place in iraq, qadaffi opened up libya to weapons inspectors.

al qaeda has been sufficiently "degraded" that it has been unable to mount any attacks against high-profile and impossible-to-defend events such as the athens olympics and the u.s. presidential election.

the bushies are right that islamic terrorism cannot survive without state sponsorship. john kerry and the democrats are wrong that it could be eradicated by police action as an organized crime problem.

to secure america and his place in history, bush should act on his beliefs. he should bomb iran's nuclear facilities and remove that threat. he should force regime change in iran, syria and saudi arabia, et al.

will he?

there is psychology and genetics to contend with here. bush may feel emboldened by the election but the sense here is that he has had about his fill of war. the iraqi war was draining in every sense: of time, of american lives, of american money and, as a consequence of all those, of the president's will.

this is a president who has never wanted to work hard. he got into yale because he was his dad's son; he made his money because he was his dad's son; became governor of texas because he was
his dad's son; he became president because he was his dad's son.

given his personal history, can you imagine a more perfect job for bush than the presidency as it appeared to be in 2000? how easy. he would inherit a booming economy and a country at peace, its old soviet enemy having imploded. he could win the thing, not work too hard and one up his more gravitas-charged brother and dispel his own manque label.

now he has one-upped his dad and gotten reelected. is a person with this history likely to seize an opportunity for greatness? did 9/11 transform him and enable him to become a transformational president for all of us? not promising.

then there's the genetic handicap. bush41 famously lacked "the vision thing." in one of his books on bush43, bob woodward relates a time when, on the eve of the iraqi war, he asked bush how his thoughts of history's judgment were weighing on him. bush replied with something like, "history? who cares, we'll all be dead then."

if saddam hussein had not invaded kuwait at a time when western leaders were gathered in aspen, colorado the gulf war may not have happened. bush41's instincts were to waver and vacillate. margaret thatcher saw this and told him "this is no time to go woolly in the knees, george." i literally searched through woodward's books for bush43's thinking that led to the start of the iraqi war. there was none. he just got carried along by events. he did not shape events.

bush43 prides himself on his "instincts" in evaluating people and situations. that is a lazy man's excuse for not wanting to think too much. it was his gut that told him that vladimir "poot-poot"putin was a good guy, that led him to announce in the oval office, with poot-poot looking down in embarrassment that he had "looked this man in the eye" and found a kindred soul in the ex-kgb apparatchik.

there is much reason to doubt that a man such as this will do the things necessary to defeat the islamic threat. if bush has been transformed and is to become transforming we should know shortly. there is no better time to force events than now.


-benjamin harris