Sound Judgment vs. More of the Same

October 5 2004
Counterbias.com
Douglass J. Griffin

“How can you go to the allies and ask them to go in there, if you're saying it's the 'wrong war'?” ~ Karl Rove after the first Presidential Debate between Senator Kerry and President Bush

It’s rather simple, Karl. You see, when you make a monumental mistake, like pre-emptive war against a non-threatening sovereign nation, you show some integrity and take responsibility for your actions. That’s the first step. Bush has yet to do that. Secondly, when in the run up to said illegal war, you alienate traditional allies – who were correct in their assessment of said war – you’ve got some crow to eat.

Integrity.

Accountability.

Humility.

These are a few of the values that I want in a president. We all should. President Bush has not one of them. 

Integrity means you don’t mislead the American people about why you are sending their sons, daughters, wives, and husbands to fight, kill, and die. Accountability means you admit when you make mistakes and accept responsibility for those mistakes. Humility means you don’t thumb your nose at the international community because it disagrees with you. 

The only value Bush has shown is resolve. This too is a very admirable trait and should be a trait we look for in a commander-in-chief. But resolve without wisdom is a detriment to any nation and ours. That is President George W. Bush – resolve without wisdom.  As John Kerry says, “We can do better.”

We can, America. We can do much better.

What Karl Rove, a.k.a. Bush’s Brain, tends to discount with his statement is that our allies advised the president that this was the “wrong war at the wrong time.” But not to imply we should let the U.N. have a “veto” – as the president puts it – with American security, those were also the assessments of many top-level American military and State Department advisors to the president.

Rather than being humble and listening to the sound advice being given, the Bush Administration went about firing or retiring those military officials who wouldn’t play ball and agree with the ill-advised war plans. In the process, President Bush also alienated the U.S. from our allies. That is some extremely flawed judgment, folks.

During the debate, John Kerry said, “You can be certain and be wrong.”

George W. Bush is certainly wrong… on several issues.

Those tax cuts he insisted on have netted not one job. And the outsourcing that President Bush seems to support apparently wasn’t limited to manufacturing and IT jobs. As Senator Kerry pointed out, the hunt for Osama bin Laden was outsourced to Pakistan and the Afghan warlords.

Obviously, you get what you pay for.

The president’s judgement is something that should never be in doubt.

“This president has made, I regret to say, a colossal error of judgement. And judgement is what we look for in the president,” said Mr. Kerry with regard to Mr. Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

It’s not the only faulty judgement the president has exhibited. Ignoring the PDB about Osama bin Laden’s desire to “strike within the U.S.” was another example of President Bush’s poor judgement. Sitting clueless in a classroom for 7 minutes after learning the nation was under attack and then continuing with the photo-op for an additional 20 minutes, further exhibits his errors in judgement.

And Senator Kerry pointed out that President Bush’s judgement was sorely lacking when Bush switched the focus from the real enemy Osama bin laden and al-Qaida to Saddam Hussein and Iraq. As the senator pointed out, “there was a right way to disarm Saddam.  This president chose the wrong way.”

Especially since Saddam obviously had already disarmed.

Saddam goaded Bush by telling the truth about having no weapons but acting as if he did. The “mayor of Baghdad” – as Bill Maher calls Saddam – outsmarted the President of the United States.

I want a president who has integrity, who is accountable for his actions, can be humble when necessary, and will use sound judgement always.

I want John F. Kerry to be my president.