This struck me as unusually annoying.
At a ceremony honoring America’s first president at his Mount Vernon estate, President Bush praised George Washington’s leadership in the American Revolution and drew parallels between that war and the war in Iraq. […]
In his official proclamation of Washington’s 275th Birthday, Bush said the first president would see an “America fulfilling the promise of her Founders.
“Today, he would see in America the world’s foremost champion of liberty — a nation that stands for freedom for all, a nation that stands with democratic reformers, and a nation that stands up to tyranny and terror,” he said in the proclamation.
Indeed, Bush certainly seems to believe that he’s carrying on the Washingtonian tradition. He told his audience today, “On the field of battle, Washington’s forces were facing a mighty empire, and the odds against them were overwhelming. The ragged Continental Army lost more battles than it won, suffered waves of desertions, and stood on the brink of disaster many times. Yet George Washington’s calm hand and determination kept the cause of independence and the principles of our Declaration alive…. In the end, General Washington understood that the Revolutionary War was a test of wills, and his will was unbreakable.” He didn’t come right out and say, “I’m just like him,” but in context, the message seemed unmistakable.
Of course, to suggest that somehow George Washington would approve of the war in Iraq, and that there’s some kind of parallel between the current war and the Revolutionary War, is just silly, even by Bush’s low standards.
Alas, this isn’t the first time the Bush gang have alluded to the nation’s first war. Conditions in Iraq have deteriorated since the downfall of Saddam? Things were bad here for years after we broke free of the British. We’re suffering tragic military setbacks in Iraq? The Continental Army lost plenty of battles. Conditions in Iraq look bleak? George Washington probably heard the same talk.
Except, as Fred Kaplan explained in August 2005, comparing Iraq to late 18th-century America “should only intensify the hackles and horrors.”
The real inference to be drawn is that the American colonies were as well-fit for a democratic union as any society in human history — and they took more than a decade to get their act together. Today’s Iraq enjoys almost none of their advantages, so how long will it take to move down the same path — and how long will we have to stay there to help?
It’s hardly encouraging.
Post Script: Bush also said today, in reference to the historic struggle Washington faced, “Today we are fighting a new war to defend our liberty, our freedom and our way of life and as we work to advance the cause of freedom around the world we remember that the father of our country believed the freedoms we secured in our revolution were not meant for Americans alone.”
I really wish he’d stop saying this. Are we really in a fight to defend our very way of life? There’s scant evidence of it. If Bush really believed that the fate of western civilization was dependent on the current struggle, then why not declare a draft and rally the nation behind the great cause?
