I think to understand this war one has to understand the man who wanted it.

To date all the Bush's have been losers. Prescott Bush was a loser. He wanted the presidency but never got it. George Herbert Walker Bush got the presidency by riding into the WH on Ronald Reagan's coattails... but promptly lost it due to his economy-ignorant and arrogant 'Marie Antoinette' attitude. His son, George Walker Bush, made it to the WH only because Clinton got caught once too often cheating on his wife. And although Bush's popularity points rose on the deaths of 4,000-plus Americans who barbecued on 9/11, he is now losing points because his family's genetically-coded idiocy is once again proving to be the dominant personality gene.

George Walker Bush idolizes and worships his father. That is why George Junior's entire life has been following in his father's footsteps... but never walking past them simply because he doesn't want to humiliate his father by doing better than his father did.

Junior attended all of his father's colleges but never surpassed his father's grades. Junior dabbled in oil drilling and futures but always performed slightly less than dad's humiliating wildcat failures. Junior even became a fighter pilot, as dad was. But when it came down to actually flying combat missions Junior bailed. Some say he went AWOL out of cowardice. I think different. I think Junior went AWOL because he didn't want to risk out-performing dad over Buddha-head skies.

Now Junior is following dad into Iraq. It was predictable. So far, Junior has accomplished his mission. He has failed to out-perform dad by deliberately -- though maybe not consciously -- mishandling this war so that it didn't end in less time than it took for his old man to headbutt Saddam out of Kuwait.

Everyone is saying that it is virtually impossible for the US to lose this war, given enough time to pound Iraq from the air, or starve its people into submission, or land a lucky shot on top of Saddam's Mercedes. But the jury is still out on US victory. If Iran and Syria turn out to be like Laos and Cambodia we might have a few problems declaring victory... and a lifetime of problems trying to rule what's left of Saddamville. It would look even worse if the dominoes start falling in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. (And this would be good for California's economy where all the rich princes have really big condos on Gray Davis' exclusive, garrisoned sandy beaches.)

DeptDef is reporting that 28 Americans have so far died to satisfy Junior's Oedipus Complex... and the UN is estimating that over 2,000 Iraquis have died... er... been freed from Saddam's tyranny.

There is a lot more dying to be done. And those deaths, along with all of the other misery also being caused because of a son's psychological hang-up with his father. But maybe, in the long view, having Junior in the White House is an improvement over Bill Clinton. At least now our country isn't going to Hell and a handbasket over the issue of p**sy. A sh**ty economy, a f**ked-up war, the whole world hating our guts, and a VP making his pals richer are a helluva lot better than having a sex scandal...

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