In his response to the latest turbulence in the Middle East and other global rumblings, George W. Bush reminds me of the kind of kid we all knew in our youth.
He was bigger and stronger than most of the others his age and, from time to time, would demonstrate his might by jumping some other kid who posed no real threat and who was no match.
Inevitably, Beef Boy’s reputation as a hard, invincible and fearless fighter would come to an end when a group of kids ganged up on him and sent him home whimpering or as he became a laughingstock once the playground figured out his pattern of standing tough only with weaker opponents and avoiding guys who could give him a run for his money.
I suppose we never get far from who we were back when. Little tattlers grow up to be big tattlers; baby whiners become adult whiners; young bullies become old bullies. If that’s so, then the man in the White House must have been a trash-talking tyke who targeted those he knew he could overpower and smiled at those who could take him, because look at him now.
He used Iraq to scratch some chauvinist itch and prove his virility, picking on a blustery dictator who was full of sound and fury, but who might as well have had sticks and stones when it comes to endangering the U.S.
Meanwhile, Iran and North Korea – two-thirds of Bush’s “axis of evil” – keep mouthing off and, effectively, knocking the wood chips off Uncle Sam’s shoulder, threatening utter destruction, agitating for it, praying for it, planning for it.
So where’s Beef Boy now? He pretends either not to notice or not to be concerned. The Iranians have been offered a deal and called to the table. Puppet master Dick Cheney pooh-poohed the Koreans’ provocations because their missile tests flopped, shrugging off Kim Jung Il’s dangerous ambitions.
The president is now the anti-Teddy Roosevelt: Walk heavily and carry a small stick is his doctrine. He’s engaging in punk diplomacy and exposing the sizeable holes in his government’s tough guy facade. Some of us recognized Bush’s phoniness early on, but now, the world is learning he ain’t all that after all.
The fix for these problems is not more war. If we can talk our way out of our troubles with Iran and North Korea and spare more lives and livelihoods, we should seize that opportunity with all earnestness. What we don’t need is for Bush to get another one of those itches and leave the country even more strapped, endangered and despised than it already is.
The fix for these problems is to come clean and acknowledge that, when you present yourself as a fighting champ, there is always someone out there to challenge you and that you will forever be in the position of putting up or shutting up.
It is late, but not too late for Bush to change his ways. He has 29 months left in office. In that time, he can reinvent himself as the “compassionate conservative” and advocate of a “humble foreign policy” that he claimed to be when he first came on the national scene.
He can wake up to the demonic natures of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the other horse whisperers and dispatch them to their luxury retirement homes on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, whence they may rehash their glory days and waste away while the country tries to recover from the hell they wrought.
He can actually behave like the born-again Christian he purports to be and honor the promise that “blessed are the peacemakers.”
Bush has time to remodel his reputation, though don’t hold your breath -- not if the president suffers a psychological weakness that compels him to prove his manhood in the most primitive ways. If he is still that little boy, God help us all.
