Robert Gates – All Ready a Victim of the Bush Self-Delusion Plague
A. Alexander, December 19th, 2006
Robert Gates, Bush’s nominee for Defense Secretary, was sworn in on Monday. Gates immediately exhibited the single most important characteristic that the President seeks in those joining his administration: The ability to remain delusional in the face of overwhelming reality.
Gates gave the obligatory post-swearing speech and without even cracking a smile, like Bush et al, pretended Iraq wasn’t all ready a lost cause. “Failure in Iraq at this juncture,” Gates said, ignoring the fact that Bush’s policy passed failure months and months ago, “would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility and endanger Americans for decades to come.” Well, of course, being a member of Team Bush, he had to throw in the scare words like “haunt” and fear mongering phrases such as, “endanger Americans for decades to come.” It’s all childish hyperbole, but it ensures Dobson and Falwell’s followers remain convinced of a coming Islamic horde. Since they are the base and the only people still fooled by Bush’s delusions, the administration likes to maintain the fear-factor. Gates did a fine Bush-like job in that area.
Robert Gates can’t hardly do a worse job of running the Defense Department and overseeing the Iraq War than had Rumsfeld, but his seeming susceptibility to the administration’s plague of delusions doesn’t exactly instill confidence that he will perform any better. It is quite unnerving that there are supposedly serious people who haven’t yet accepted the fact that Iraq is a lost cause. Apparently, like Rumsfeld, we can count Gates among those in denial.
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