WHAT HAS BUSH LEARNED?
December 2, 2004

by Joe Sobran

     Freud once described neurotic behavior as persisting 
in doing the very thing that caused the problem in the 
first place -- keeping on digging when you're already in 
a hole. By that standard, government may be the most 
neurotic behavior of all. A neurosis is a mental block 
against learning from experience.

     Some years ago THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY ran a long 
article showing that government programs to redistribute 
wealth don't reduce inequality at all; they leave it 
about what it was in the first place. Everyone would be 
just as rich or poor if they didn't exist. (Everyone 
would also be freer.)

     Now the Bush administration has announced that 
12,000 more U.S. troops will be sent to Iraq, swelling 
the total to 150,000. This comes after all those boasts 
about how well the war was going; but that was before the 
election.

     Odd. The other day in Canada President Bush claimed 
that his victory in the election was a mandate for his 
foreign policy. Of course it wasn't. He won in spite of 
the Iraq war, and he knew it, which is why he has delayed 
telling the public he planned to send additional troops 
until now. About three quarters of the voters for whom 
the war was the most important issue voted for John 
Kerry.

     This war is what Freud would call neurotic. It's not 
solving the problem of terrorism; it's aggravating it, 
while causing new problems. One thing we know Bush won't 
do is step back and rethink the whole thing. Why did the 
9/11 attacks occur in the first place? Because U.S. 
Government interventionism has made us hated around the 
world, particularly in the Muslim world. So what is Bush 
doing about that? Everything he can do to intensify that 
hatred.

     It would be tedious to list his other blunders, 
chiefly his strained attempt to connect Iraq to 9/11. We 
have hailed our victory over the Iraqi army, the capture 
of Saddam Hussein, the "transfer of sovereignty," and 
we're getting ready to hail the January elections. And 
what has really been achieved? Are we expecting any good 
to come of all this, or are we merely waiting for a 
chance to withdraw gracefully?

     Bush himself probably wouldn't be foolish enough to 
do it all over again. Maybe in his private moments he 
wishes he could go back to 9/11 and handle it 
differently; maybe he would ignore the neoconservative 
fanatics who immediately tried to turn a terrorist attack 
into an excuse for the war they'd wanted -- a war on 
Iraq. Following their advice nearly cost him reelection.

     Now the neocons want to expand the war to Iran; but 
Bush's caution so far suggests that he has learned a 
lesson. Besides, American forces are already stretched 
too thinly for a similar war on Iran. We should notice 
what the president isn't saying these days: He's not 
talking about "preemptive" war on Iran, or suggesting 
that "regime change" there would protect our own freedom; 
he no longer speaks of an "axis of evil" of which Iran is 
a charter member.

     Bush is a stubborn man, but there are subtle signs 
that he's also, in some respects, a changed man. These 
may not be the most important respects, but they may save 
us from a wider and much worse war: the neocons' coveted 
"World War IV," which was to transform the entire culture 
of the Middle East.

     Instead, Bush will have his hands full leaving Iraq 
with some plausible semblance of the American-style 
democracy he has promised. He still insists that the 
scheduled January 30 elections, even if they are 
boycotted by eligible and terrorized voters, will go on, 
and will change Iraq's character; but at least he no 
longer has similar delusions about magically transmuting 
Iraq's neighbors. It's one thing to talk hopefully about 
change, progress, and democracy, the mashed potatoes of 
political rhetoric; implementing them among passionate 
people is another matter.

     Bush has had a lot of experience of democracy 
lately. What has he learned from it? He has witnessed the 
difficulties of fostering democracy in Israel and the 
occupied territories as well as Russia and Ukraine. What 
has he learned from these encounters?

     Probably nothing that can be easily put into words, 
except perhaps the difference between mashed potatoes and 
hot potatoes.

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