Dowd: Welcome to Bushworld, where things aren't what they appear to be
Maureen Dowd
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON -- It's their reality. We just live and die in it.
In Bushworld, our troops go to war and get killed, but you never see the bodies coming home.
In Bushworld, flag-draped remains of the fallen are important to revere and show the nation, but
only in political ads hawking the president's leadership against terror.
In Bushworld, we can create an exciting Iraqi democracy as long as it doesn't control its own
military, pass any laws or have any power.
In Bushworld, we can win over Fallujah by bulldozing it.
In Bushworld, it was worth going to war so Iraqis could express their feelings ("Down With
America!") without having their tongues cut out, although we cannot yet allow them to express
intemperate feelings in newspapers ("Down With America!") without shutting them down.
In Bushworld, it's fine to take $700 million that Congress provided for the war in Afghanistan
and 9-11 recovery and divert it to the war in Iraq that you are insisting you are not planning.
In Bushworld, you don't consult your father, the expert in being president during a war with Iraq,
but you do talk to your Higher Father, who can't talk back to warn you to get an exit strategy or
chide you for using Him for political purposes.
In Bushworld, it's OK to run for re-election as the avenger of 9-11, even as you make secret
deals with the Arab kingdom where most of the 9-11 hijackers came from.
In Bushworld, you get to strut around like a tough military guy and paint your rival as a chicken
hawk, even though he's the one who won medals in combat and was praised by his superior
officers for fulfilling all his obligations.
In Bushworld, it makes sense to press for transparency in Mr. and Mrs. Rival while cultivating
your own opacity.
In Bushworld, you can reign as the antiterror president even after hearing an intelligence report
about al-Qaida's plans to attack America and then stepping outside to clear brush.
In Bushworld, those who dissemble about the troops and money it will take to get Iraq on its
feet are patriots, while those who are honest are patronizingly marginalized.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq, even as they increasingly
merge the two in America.
In Bushworld, you can claim to be the environmental president on Earth Day while being the
industry president every other day.
In Bushworld, you brag about how well Afghanistan is going, even though soldiers like Pat
Tillman are still dying and the Taliban are running freely around the border areas, hiding Osama
and delaying elections.
In Bushworld, imperfect intelligence is good enough to knock over Iraq. But even better
evidence that North Korea is building the weapons that Saddam could only dream about is hidden
away.
In Bushworld, the CIA says it can't find out whether there are WMD in Iraq unless we invade on
the grounds that there are WMD.
In Bushworld, there's no irony that so many who did so much to avoid the Vietnam draft have
now strained the military so much that lawmakers are talking about bringing back the draft.
In Bushworld, we're making progress in the war on terror by fighting a war that creates
terrorists.
In Bushworld, you don't need to bother asking your vice president and top Defense Department
officials whether you should go to war in Iraq, because they've already maneuvered you into going
to war.
In Bushworld, it's perfectly natural for the president and vice president to appear before the 9-
11 commission like the Olsen twins.
In Bushworld, you expound on remaking the Middle East and spreading pro-American
sentiments even as you expand anti-American sentiments by ineptly occupying Iraq and
unstintingly backing Ariel Sharon on West Bank settlements.
In Bushworld, we went to war to give Iraq a democratic process, yet we disdain the democratic
process that causes allies to pull out troops.
In Bushworld, you pride yourself on the fact that your administration does not leak to the press,
while you flood the best-known journalist in Washington with inside information.
In Bushworld, you list Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack as recommended reading on your
campaign Web site, even though it makes you seem divorced from reality. That is, unless you live
in Bushworld.
