Ain’t Nuthin’ but a Family Thing

On September 26, 2002, President Bush spoke in Houston at a fundraiser for a Republican candidate for the Senate. At that time, his Orwellian rhetoric against anyone skeptical of his foreign policy was just getting warmed up, and he took the Senate – then controlled by the Democrats – to task, impugning their patriotism, for dragging their feet over Homeland Security. Then his speech shifted focus to Saddam Hussein.

The president delivered the usual litany of Saddam’s defiance of the UN, his malice toward the US, his threat to world peace, etc. Then Bush said something very interesting:

"After all, this is the guy who tried to kill my dad."

I’ll pause a moment and let that sink in. Think about it. … Yeah. You see what I mean. Remember when George the Elder went to Kuwait for his victory lap, or whatever, during the Clinton Administration? Iraqis tried to kill him. And Clinton sent them some cruise missiles for an attitude adjustment.

I gotta be honest. If somebody tried to kill my Dad, and I became president and had a chance to kick his ass, his whole country’s ass, and render him to a babbling, matted idiot living in a hovel, you better your Euphrates I’d do it. Probably. I’d make him sorry somehow. I like to think I wouldn’t expend thousands of dead and wounded to do it, but I’d take care of business.

George H.W. Bush was, after all, the duly elected and duly replaced ex-president of the United States. My political differences with him aside, you don’t try to assassinate such a person and get away with it. (Or any of us for that matter.) So I’m glad that Saddam got his ass handed to him. He got what he deserved. I wholeheartedly dissent against the war, but I’m pleased with this particular result of it. I wish Clinton had gotten Saddam with a missile, and made it all moot.

Now if Bush had stood up in front of Congress and the Republic and said, “We’re goin’ to get his bastard ‘cause he done tried ta kill Pa,” I don’t think he would have gotten the misbegotten mandate he got last Spring. I suspect the polls would be a tad more lopsided, and the vote in Congress less partisan. But at least he would have gone into the history books as making a little more sense. And eventually, rationality is going to raise it’s bewildered head and ask, “What in the wide world of sports were people thinking back in ’03? What did all those kids die for anyway?”

It’s nice he’s on ice, but it’s not worth the price.

CNN.com - Bush calls Saddam 'the guy who tried to kill my dad' - Sep. 27, 2002