Compassionate conservatism hinges on what the big boys’ aim to do with excessive corporate welfare and tax cuts — they chose to invest in foreign soil and to hire cheap labor.
Bush might call himself a “compassionate conservative” but he’s not stupid — he knows on which side to butter his bread.
NCLB “is” the hallmark of his compassion; that is, based on the premise “failing schools,” while faith-based schools wait in the wings for vouchers.
He was[?] “humble” in rejecting before 9/11 “nation-building.”
He was[?] sure of himself that he would be a “uniter, not a divider” in both domestic and foreign affairs — until the the marriage amendment and “axis of evil” surfaced.
He rightly led the nation to a war on Afghanistan but dropped the ball, knowing if the Taliban and Al Qaeda were defeated too soon, it would end his popularity: always present in his mind — and Karl Rove’s — was his father’s quick victory in Kuwait and short-lived soaring popularity as a wartime president whose subsequent defeat was due his failure in domestic issues. The best route for the son was an indelible commander in chief by pulling out the special forces— credence to Wolfowitz’s pre-9/11 posture and Bush’s own early 2002 confession, “I am truly not that concerned about him [Osama]” — from Afghanistan to prepare them and other forces for a second front in Iraq, as though he were FDR.
In light of the infamous 9/11 attack, he claimed global ownership to the fight against terror as though terror on the globe had never existed before, announcing to, and upstaging the world that “you are either for us or against us”; never mind that other countries had been fighting terrorism for years — Israel, Indonesia, Germany, Britain, Egypt, Philippines — the US was now the bull in the China shop, and professed humble coöperation was shattered. His haughty suspicion of WMD inspection prompted the inspection team to wear emblazoned T-shirts “UN Chicken Coop Inspector” for US scoffing its findings.
Hostilities in Iraq are[?] over and mission accomplished was the propaganda; thus, Bush was perched to engage, not only in nation building, but to democratize the entire Mideast. All such questionable matters preëmpt the definition of “is.”
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: October 23, 2004.
http://stevendedalus.joeuser.com