Bush’s Comma

by tristero

Many blogs have linked to the comma quote as one more indication that Bush epitomizes the callous conservative. I agree: it’s a disgusting remark. But I perceive something even more distressing about it than obscene sociopathic indifference to human suffering.

Let’s say I was president of the United States and when someone asks me about my central achievement, I respond that one day it will look like “just a comma.” I think you’d be quite justified in thinking I was very depressed and unsatisfied with my record. Why? Because I’d just told you I hadn’t done anything much more important than an historical speck, a squib, a doodle. And being president, I’d be wanting to accomplish something really big, really memorable. Like, say, attacking a really large country. Like being the first since Truman to drop a nuclear weapon in war. Now we’re talking. That’s worth at least a paragraph in the Book of Human History Before The Rapture.

In other words, I think Bush’s comma is a signal to the world that he’s barely started with the bang bang and the carnage. The casualties he’s already inflicted around the world are too small to mean anything to someone as narcissistic and grandiose as the Churchill of Crawford. He expects – no, he needs – many, many more battles, bigger targets. Real men, after all, go to Tehran. And we know that Bush – Oedipus Tex, the black sheep awol drunk loser who failed at business – has some problems thinking about himself as a real man.

But how realistic is this? That is, setting Bush’s truly dubious mental health aside (and regardless of whether you buy my speculations above, he is not the tightest of screws at the best of times), can the US military actually give Bush something more than a comma to remember him by anytime soon?

Well, there’s a post over at Talking Points Memo which makes a pretty convincing argument that logistically the US military, quagmired in Afghanistan and Iraq, is in no condition to attack Iran anytime soon.

It seems likely this could be true. Unless you consider a first strike nuclear attack as part of a concerted effort to effect regime change. Which is insane. Which, coming full circle, brings up the relevance of the mental state of a president who would characterize the ghastly horrors of the Bush/Iraq war as a mere comma in history.

Please, people. Do not misunderestimate him or this administration. They are crazy, and I am not speaking metaphorically here. They were crazy to ignore the warnings in the summer of ’01. They were crazy to invade Iraq. They were crazy to pass laws keeping a brain-dead woman hooked up to a feeding tube. They are crazy to write into law that George W. Bush has the right to torture people at will. Indeed, they are crazy in their lust to assert their will over anything and everything.

And they are crazy to plan any kind of attack on Iran (in both senses: it’s nuts to consider it, and they really, really want to do it). They are crazy to think that threatening something like that will put pressure on the Iranian government to capitulate; if anything it will increase Iranian nationalism, fuel anti-Americanism and increase the Iranian government’s support.

They are also crazy to think that retaliation will come only via terrorist attacks on the US and those attacks will increase domestic support for the Bush regime (“we’re the ones serious about national security”). No. Retaliation for a pre-emptive strike on Iran will be swift, brutal, and on numerous fronts. The US will be economically and culturally quarantined. The world will unite to fight the US on trade agreements, will implement sanctions and make international business deals impossibly difficult. To those rightwingers who say, “Yeah? The Frenchies gonna threaten us? Haha! Bring ’em on!” I say, be careful what you wish for. They don’t call this a global economy for nuthin’.

Again, as unlikely as it seems, as offhand as it appears to be, I see the comma remark as one more indication that Bush expects to attack Iran very soon. And, while he doesn’t go so far as to believe it will involve nuclear, I note that Gary Hart writes, “It should come as no surprise if the Bush Administration undertakes a preemptive war against Iran sometime before the November election.” It’s not just inconsequential bloggers who are very worried, dear friends.

This ain’t no party. This ain’t no disco. This ain’t no fooling around.

[Update: As pointed out by a coupla folks in comments, Steve Gilliard has a terrific take on Bush’s comma:

When Bush said Iraq was a comma, he was speaking in dog whistle to the fundies. It comes from a saying “Never put a period where God puts a comma”.Which means things will get better. Which is, of course, insane.

Indeed. And while I agree with Steve, and glad he mentioned it, I’m not sure that necessarily invalidates my psychoanlytic interpretation, although, it’s true, it seems less convincing to me in the light of Steve’s post.]