1/17 A National Hero is Born, A National Disgrace Takes Office, & the Brave Die Needlessly

Ben Franklin’s Life Begins

1706: ‘The first American’, Benjamin Franklin, is born today in Boston.

George W. Bush’s Political Career Begins

“The first Mistake in publick Business, is the going into it.” Ben Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1758

1995: Today is President Bush’s first day in public office.  He begins his first term as the 46th governor of Texas.

Their Lives Have Ended

2004: The number of U.S. soldiers killed since the March invasion of Iraq reaches 500 when three die in a roadside bombing.

Many Lives Might Have Been Saved, but for Cheney

2007: A BBC interview with Colin Powell’s former State Dept. chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, is aired today.  Wilkerson says that an Iranian offer to help stabilize Iraq was rejected by VP Cheney in 2003.  “We thought it was a very propitious moment” to come to some agreement but “as soon as it got to the vice president’s office, the old mantra of ‘We don’t talk to evil’ … reasserted itself.” 

Shia-led Iran holds great sway in Shia-led Iraq.  Years later, the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group would call for U.S. discussions with Iran and other Iraqi neighbors.  The Bush administration finally held discussions with Iran in 2007, after over 3,000 U.S. lives and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives had been lost. 

After a May 2007 U.S.-Iran meeting Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group would be quoted in the Boston Globe, saying that the meetings presented a “definitive way forward”.  By 2007, however, Iranian leadership was much more hostile to the U.S. compared to the relatively moderate government that had been in place back in 2003.  No one can know, but perhaps many lives might have been saved had the 2003 offer to talk been acted upon, instead of being dismissed out of hand.

Oblivious to his own failures, in 2008 Bush accused those who would negotiate with nations like Iran of “appeasement”.  Yet, even those who would serve Mr. Bush would agree that we need to talk with enemies.  Bush Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wrote that the US must “deal with the current regime rather than wait for it to fall”, and “We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage . . . and then sit down and talk with them”.

“Better jaw jaw than war war.”  Winston Churchill

Bush Praises Democracy Suppressor Hosni Mubarak

2008: Newspapers report today on yesterday’s White House visit by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.  Mubarak has a reputation for imprisoning or exiling members of the opposition and for strict restrictions on their political activities.  During his visit, President Bush turned toward Mubarak and said, “I appreciate the example that your nation is setting”.  Yes, that is quite an example.