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The Lessons of History
 Ah, the Lessons of History! They’re
like Aesop’s fables, tiny narratives tagged with single, simple morals.
The Lesson of Munich, the Lesson of Vietnam, the Lesson of Watergate, and
so on. Politicians and pundits love ’em.
 One
of these Lessons we’re being reminded of by the less literate supporters of
President Bush and the Iraq war is that History may someday take a kindlier
view of a president who gets low approval ratings from his contemporaries.
This is the Lesson of Truman. When Harry Truman left office in 1953 he was
about as unpopular as Bush is today, but he is now remembered as a great
(or near-great) president. So maybe future generations will look back just as
fondly on Bush.
Maybe.
But before we start construction on the Bush Memorial, perhaps someone
will explain just what Truman’s greatness (or near-greatness)
consisted in. Using nuclear weapons on cities? Waging undeclared war in
Korea? Trying to nationalize the steel industry?
If
anything, Truman was even worse than his poll ratings suggest. He had the
temperament of a vulgar dictator. His most notable achievement was his
1948 upset victory over Thomas Dewey. But how did that, or anything else
he ever did, serve the public interest?
John
Kennedy is another whose presidency has been endowed with a retrospective
glamour unrelated to any known public benefit. Only nostalgia can account for
the happy memory he has become. The most you can say for him is that he
didn’t do as much harm as most of our presidents.
Lyndon
Johnson and Richard Nixon also wore out their welcomes, even after landslide
victories, and retired in well-earned disgrace. Few would defend them today.
There is no sign that their reputations will ever be substantially repaired.
Some
people believe in reincarnation, or want to, because of a pathetic inability to
accept this life as the one that counts. They need to feel they will have
another chance to redeem themselves.
Imagine
being in Bush’s place. You have deviously taken the country into a
horrible war, disregarding and even despising your father’s prudence,
conceding nothing to the critics who turned out to be right. You have lost the
trust and respect of more than two-thirds of the American public. You have
made this country feared and hated around the world.
![[Breaker quote for The Lessons of History: One more Bush fantasy]](2007breakers/070711.gif) With
all that and more on your
soul, wouldn’t you want to cling to the hope that many years from now
you will appear, not reckless and deluded, but prescient and courageous?
That wise old History will reverse the verdict of today’s court of
public opinion and grant you a full pardon?
But this
is only one more Bush fantasy. Time and again his shallow sense of history
has betrayed him: in his wild charges against Saddam Hussein, in his silly
prediction that democracy in Iraq would flourish and transform the entire
Middle East, in his premature declaration of victory, in his incurable optimism
about the war’s progress — it’s hard to think of anything
he’s been right about.
Meanwhile, think of his father’s anguish. After proudly
seeing his son win the presidency twice, he has had to watch helplessly as
the promise of glory was transformed into a historical nightmare —
one of the most ignominious administrations in American history.
For all his
faults, the elder Bush was always wary of the pro-Israel lobby, including the
Christian Right. By his lights, he put American interests first. His
son’s worst blunders have sprung from subservience to the
neoconservatives and their dupes, who are always eager to see this country
at war in the Middle East. He felt no mission to spread democracy over the
earth like peanut butter or to fight the Israelis’ wars for them.
What
must the old man feel as he sees his family name become accursed of all
nations? Being a parent can be tough. Kids can give you unpleasant surprises.
Usually, though, these can be coped with. If your son gets drunk and totals
your new stretch limousine, well, you’re not happy, but it’s not
going into the history books. But if, say, he starts a world war, you may find
yourself wishing you’d put him up for adoption when you still had the
chance.
Old
George and Bar may be kicking themselves right now. I hope their golden
years aren’t being spoiled by recriminations: “You’re the
one who wanted to keep him!” “That’s a low blow! I never
said that!” It could get ugly.
Joseph Sobran |
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| Copyright © 2007 by the
Griffin Internet Syndicate, a division of Griffin Communications This column may not be reprinted in print or Internet publications without express permission of Griffin Internet Syndicate 
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