DOES AMERICA GET WHAT IT DESERVES?
Well, "Time" magazine named President George W. Bush "Man of the Year" for 2004, an honor previously bestowed on Adolf Hitler (1938), Josef Stalin (1942) and the Ayatollah Khomeini (1979). Congratulations and good for him.
His proud accomplishments include the needless slaughter of more than 1,300 brave American men and women in Iraq, the maiming of 10,000 more, the deaths of 150 soldiers from countries stupid enough to join his "coalition" and the murder of an estimated 16,000 Iraqi civilians.
The American advance from Normandy to Berlin in World War II was accomplished in half the time of Bush's "liberation" of Iraq. And there's no end in sight.
When he visited Canada recently, there was talk of having him arrested as a war criminal. How sweet would that have been?
Here at home, he has managed to wreck a thriving economy, divide the nation and announce plans for dismantling Social Security based on a phony "crisis" that may or may not occur in 50 years. On the currency market, the dollar is becoming increasingly worthless and Bush is the first president since Herbert Hoover to post a net loss of jobs during his first four years in office.
Still, some 59 million Americans voted for him, something that will be to our shame for decades to come. From Ireland to India, people around the world are still shaking their heads.
Bush calls himself a conservative. In our view, launching an unprecedented pre-emptive war against a country that represented no threat whatsoever to our national security is anything but. Likewise, proposing to amend the United States Constitution on the basis of a political issue that might qualify as "flavor of the month" -- gay marriage -- is similarly radical, the polar opposite of conservatism.
An admittedly flawed candidate, John Kerry saw his campaign for the presidency undone by the demonstrably dishonest Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the drug-addled Rush Limbaugh and the pervert Bill O'Reilly, all of whom supported Bush.
For a lot of people and for a lot of reasons, 2004 was a lousy year, one best forgotten as quickly as possible. Perhaps "Time" magazine, in selecting Bush as the "Man of the Year," recognized that fact.
The problem is, we're stuck with him for another four years. And a lot more people are going to die before it's over.
Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com Dec. 28 2004