Letter: Bush’s stubbornness is the world’s problem

Friday, Dec. 15, 2006 | 7:17 a.m.

I read the Associated Press article in Sunday's paper, "Iraq Strategy up to 'Decider,' " a reference to the nickname arrogantly given to himself by President Bush. What an encouraging source of solace and comfort this article should give to the entire world.

As the Decider, Mr. Bush has made one mistake and blunder after another in the prosecution of the war - false WMD justifications, failure of preinvasion and postwar occupation evaluations, lack of armor, Abu Ghraib, etc. And what about Bush's multiple votes of confidence given to the highly incompetent defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, until such time that it became politically imperative and necessary to dismiss him after the 2006 midterm elections? Obviously, the Decider was more interested in his political allegiance to Rumsfeld and maintaining Republican control of Congress than the protection and best interests of our troops.

In 1971 John Kerry, in his "Vietnam Veterans Against the War" speech, stated "... Each day to facilitate the process by which the United States washes her hands of Vietnam someone has to give up his life so that the United States doesn't have to admit something the entire world already knows, so that we can't say that we have made a mistake ... We are asking Americans to think about that because how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Mr. Bush's handling of the Iraq war is a tragic story of arrogance and incompetence marked by false rationalizations and one costly mistake after another that has resulted in the deaths of so many of our brave soldiers. How do you ask a man or woman to be the last person to die for such false rationalizations and mistakes? Ask the Decider.

Tom Harper, Henderson