Friday, October 08, 2004

The Buck Stops Here

Who said it? Seriously. Where did the phrase "The Buck Stops Here" come from?

Don't know?

A US president. Which one? Harry Truman.

"The Buck Stops Here" sat on his desk in the oval office, facing the door. It's meaning was clear: "I'm responsible for any action that is undertaken by my country. If you can't get an answer to a problem, if you're getting passed around, stop by my office. The passing of the buck stops with me. The Boss. el Presidente. Numero uno guy in charge."

Wow. Personal responsibility from a sitting president. A statement from the guy in charge that if a mistake has been made, he'll take responsibility for it and fix it. Truman would have rather been right than determined.

A far cry from W. Wouldn't you say?

Yesterday, the definitive report from the CIA came out regarding the threat that Iraq posed with its weapons of mass destruction or it's potential to produce weapons of mass destruction. In a clear, concise (and very long) report, it concludes that Saddam Hussein gave up on WMD's and trying to acquire WMD's as early as 1998 and that using the WMD excuse as an excuse to invade Iraq was the wrong decision. "How did the Bush team respond?" you might ask.

Dick Cheney yesterday "Invading Iraq was absolutely the right thing to do and I'd recommend doin it again". Similar comments from the Clown in Chief.

So, for the last year or so, they've shifted from WMD's as being the reason for invading to "Saddam Hussen was supporting global terror, had close ties to the al Queda network and posed a direct threat to the security of the US".

Is anybody going to ask W and Cheney when they are planning to invade Saudi Arabia? (most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis) Is there an invasion plan to roll over Iran? (they are refining fissionalble materials and are publicly on the quest for the bomb) How about this: Is the US 6th fleet parked off the coast of North Korea, ready to level the country? (their nutbar leader is starving his people so he can build more nuclear arms which he's already threatened to use).

When is the buck going to stop on George W. Bush's desk. When will he stand up and say "You know what, we got it wrong. I'm sorry that your kids, fathers, husbands, wives have died in vain". "We will make this right".

It won't. Ever. This administration would rather be certain than right. They'd rather be determined than morally correct.

Let's not go down the road to "But the world is a more dangerous place now."

In Truman's day, there was the rising threat of the Soviet Empire, the real threat of an atomic holocaust and the small matter of ending a world war that had killed 20 million people. He helped create the united Nations, appointed four Supreme Court Justices and, oh yeah, some Puerto Rican Nationalists tried to kill him.

The world has always been a complex place. There have always been foes that want to destroy the country from within and without. Ever since they became the biggest kid on the block, someone has wanted to knock off the US. The difference is, when you have a leader with credibility on the world stage and the ability to stand up and say "we may have screwed this one up", that list of potential foes grows a lot shorter.

Under Bush, that list is longer than ever. I wonder how far a simple "We're sorry, and we're going to make things right" would go.


1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

sparroweye here... **clap**clap**clap**clap**clap**

I am really scared about our future if Bush gets back
in. So scared, if the opportunity arose, I would
change countries for a while. This man's thought
processes or "not" are scary.

10:50 a.m.  

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