Cakewalking ‘til 2057?

In 2002, if President George Bush had told America he wanted to open an economy-sized can of worms in Iraq that could have Americans in harm’s way in that troubled land for 50 years, how many senators would have voted to give him the authority he used to invade in 2003?

Yet, today I read a front-page piece that said the president now “envisions” (uh-oh!) a long-term American military presence in Iraq, similar to what’s been the deal in South Korea since 1954. Yikes!

Remember how we were told reshuffling the cards in Iraq would be a “cakewalk”?

Could there be such a thing as a 50-year cakewalk?

If, at the onset of the war in Iraq, Bush had told the USA’s citizenry there was no known connection between the government in Iraq and al Qaida, between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, or Osama bin Laden, but that he wanted to overthrow and hang Saddam, anyway -- just because he had it coming -- what would people have said?

What if Bush had told us he wanted to launch a civil war that would feed on itself and create two million Iraqi refugees, would most people have said -- Oh yeah, you go for it, Dubya? Then there were those little fibs about proof of yellow cake, mobile labs cooking up poison, weapons of mass destruction, and so forth.

We will probably never know what exactly Bush believed was true in 2002 and ‘03. It’s damned hard to tell what he believes now. So, whether he knew what he and his official spokespersons were saying was useful but bogus prattle, or not, whichever, they sure got it wrong.

Now Bush wants us to put all that aside and accept that a guy who couldn’t have gotten it more wrong, then, now knows what he’s doing.

Who is that gullible?

Why would anyone believe the president is telling the truth, or even knows what he’s talking about? Either way, why should we the people put any store in the notion that what this president “envisions” today will be good medicine for America tomorrow?