(On the) Offensive

Bush Team Goes to War -- Against Reality

By Rick Horowitz

Hey, you!

That's right -- I'm talking to you, Mr. and Mrs. Average American Citizen with your house and your lawn and your 2.3 children and your morning paper spread out on the kitchen table. Or perhaps it's time to call you by your rightful name: Mr. and Mrs. Appeaser of Fascists.

That's what you are, you know -- appeasers of fascists. I have it on the highest authority -- straight from the mouth of Donald Rumsfeld. That's right: the same Donald Rumsfeld who's in charge of running all the president's wars, and has done such a bang-up job of it that he's apparently decided he can spare a little time to moonlight as a history teacher -- and a campaign prop.

You may have thought you were doing the right thing, keeping up with the news from Iraq and drawing your own conclusions about how well things are going. (Or aren't.) You were worried when you saw how the violence kept spreading there, years after the president stood on that carrier deck in front of that "Mission Accomplished" banner. You were sad when you saw how many kids from hometowns just like yours were being killed in that violence. You even found yourself doubting whether the people running the war really have a plan (or a clue), or whether behind all their tough talk was one great steaming pile of rank incompetence.

That's when you gave yourselves away.

When you had the temerity to question our leaders' judgment, and to ask whether their approach was truly the best approach to keeping us safe, or just a dangerous distraction. When you even considered the possibility of holding those leaders accountable for their shoddy planning and their dreamy strategizing.

That's when your masks fell off -- you and your neighbors and your friends. More than half the country, in fact, and more of you all the time, souring on the war and the people who've been running it.

You may have tried to pass yourself off as good, loyal Americans -- Democrats, Republicans (yes, even Republicans have been raising questions lately), independents. But that's when you showed the world who you really are, Mr. and Mrs. Appeaser of Fascists.

The nerve of you!

You think it might have been a good idea to send enough troops to do the job? And enough of the right kinds of equipment to keep those troops safe? You're a defeatist.

You think our troops should leave Iraq even one day sooner than the president does? You haven't "learned history's lessons."

You think giving Osama bin Laden a five-year pass was a colossal mistake that we'll be paying for for years? You're just another one of those "Blame America First"-ers."

Whose side are you on anyway?

If you were on America's side -- Donald Rumsfeld's side and the president's side and Dick Cheney's side -- you wouldn't be thinking like that. You'd be thinking exactly the way Donald Rumsfeld and the president and Dick Cheney are thinking. Or better still, you wouldn't be thinking at all! You'd understand that Donald Rumsfeld and the president and Dick Cheney are perfectly capable of doing your thinking for you, and you'd just get out of the way and vote for the people they tell you to vote for and let Donald Rumsfeld and the president and Dick Cheney keep handling everything.

You've got a problem with that? I thought you might. That just shows the kind of people you are.

And they're on to you.

Posted 9/1/06. Click to "Rick's" for award-winning commentary from syndicated columnist Rick Horowitz!

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist, TV commentator, writing coach and public speaker.

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