Regime Change 2008

The Anti-anti-war Rhetoric Will Backfire

There's been a sea change recently in the Bush Administration. No, they haven't admitted their mistakes and grown a sense of humility. That would be asking too much. Instead, Bush and his minions have decided to take the offensive against detractors of Bush's march to war and subsequent handling of the "peace". This is a serious tactical mistake.

As much as I detest the philosophy and incompetence of this administration as the country's executive branch stewards, their political moves thus far have been pretty savvy. Anybody who can get a president reelected who has turned surplus into deficit, peace into war, community into a landscape bitterly divided deserves respect. They had a game plan and they executed on it. Nobody ever criticized Goebelles as ineffective. However, they are making a big mistake by turning their sites on homegrown critics of what's become a less and less popular foreign policy.

This upbraiding of prominent skeptics and typical punching bags such as sad-sack Kerry and his crew of fence-sitters, inadvertently catches in its snares the majority of regular Americans that have come to the thoughtful conclusion that the Iraq war was a serious misstep. Americans are currently waking up with sleepy eyes to see clearly the Administration that they took home the night before, now that the intoxicant that is post-9/11 outrage is wearing off.

Does the Administration know that it is effectively calling a growing group of Americans traitors? Can it not see that this is ultimately a doomed strategy? Their "I know you are but what am I" attitude so successful on the schoolyards across America will be seen as the flimsy argument that it always has and always will be. One could characterize their previous strategy as "Sticks and Stones". Perhaps, they should have stuck with that.

posted by Scott Edward Johnson @ 11:51 AM