Is George W. Bush Dreaming?

Two recent (and related) news stories are the subject of today’s column.

It’s been revealed that Pat Robertson (evangelist, broadcaster – you know who he is) tried to warn George W. Bush against sending troops into Iraq during the spring of 2003. He warned Bush that there would be heavy casualties, and Bush assured him that there wouldn’t be any US casualties in Iraq.

The other story is the 8-year prison sentence handed down to one of the ringleaders of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

These stories are both related to Bush’s absolutely dreamlike, fairy-tale approach to the invasion of Iraq. Could he be taking Halcyon? (This has been the subject of past rumors.) His entire approach to Iraq – the complete lack of any post-war planning, “Mission Accomplished,” his total shock and surprise at the torture reports from Abu Ghraib – is that of a drug-induced dreamlike detachment from reality.

Come to think of it, most of his policies seem to spring from a dreamlike “everything will be fine and I feel goooooood right now, yeeeaahh” state of mind. Our soldiers will liberate Iraq in a matter of hours, and throngs of grateful Iraqis will shower them with flowers and ice cream. Bzzzzzztt! Wrong!! All of the other Arab populations will see how wonderful Iraq is doing with their new democratic government, and they too will overthrow their tyrannical leaders and establish democracy. Freedom and democracy will flower all over the Middle East. Bzzzzzztttt!! The economy continues to plummet – I know, I’ll cut taxes for the richest 2% of the country and that’ll stimulate the creation of new jobs. Sorry, George, it wasn’t true 3 ½ years ago and it isn’t true now. We all know the saying about neurotic people doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result each time.

Things don’t seem very hopeful. But wait, I’m just gonna take this little pill……… Aahhh, everything’s fine now. It doesn’t matter who wins the election. Four more years of George W. Bush? No problem; we’ll just wish all our cares away. We’ll be fine.....