February 1, 2008
by James Rothenberg

The President gave his State of the Union address. It was a model affair, magnificent in the practiced art of decorum fitting an advanced nation. A set play in one act. The stage empty of meaning and mystery. A refined audience confident of its indispensability, and nothing more.      

Bodies could be seen popping up and down like buoys responding to waves of platitudes. Up and down is acceptable, always. Out of place, never.

Civility masks possibility. Every inspiring accomplishment of this human species has resulted from an audacious act. Uniformity is a convenient organizational principle, but it surrenders to its own limits. Make the best of it for now, it announces. But there are too many nows for the impatient.

The talk is of there being too much partisanship. That the country is becoming too divisive. (For its own good? Maybe.) When one side is killing, there is only one good side to be on.

Where are we killing, you say? Outright killing?

You don't know? It's been on the news.

"Proud to be an American" needs a because after it. Because without the because what are we talking about but our own self worth? Sometimes even with it.

The audience was filled with proud Americans, too fine and proper to react to assaults on reason, on conscience. On a single matter alone, Iraq, there was ample reason to disturb this too peaceful place.

"The Iraqi people quickly realized that something dramatic had happened. Those who had worried that America was preparing to abandon them instead saw tens of thousands of American forces flowing into their country." (On the recent "surge" of American forces into Iraq)

These words were uttered by Bush with a marked degree of solemnity. Nobody laughed, even if they got the joke.

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There might have been some Iraqis who were worried about being abandoned, but it is hardly accurate to associate them over-broadly with "the Iraqi people". The people with a reason to be worried about being abandoned are largely collaborators.

Asked how much confidence they had in US and UK occupation forces in a BBC, ABC, and NHK poll of September 2007, some Iraqis did say they had a great deal of confidence - four percent. Another eleven percent had quite a lot of confidence.

As to the rest of the Iraqi people, fifty-eight percent had none at all, and twenty-seven percent had not very much.

Answering directly to Bush's strange notion about Iraqis being worried of being abandoned by America, more Iraqis wanted US and other Coalition forces to leave immediately than even to wait until their security is restored, an indication of how worried they are. Thirty-four percent said remain until security is restored. Forty-seven percent said leave now.

How many support the Bush, and Clinton, and Obama, and McCain, et.al. position, remain longer but leave eventually? Two percent. And their unstated position, never leave? Zero.

Let it be noted that the play closed in predictable fashion:

"God bless America." (Applause.)

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James Rothenberg [send him email] was born in 1939 and made his living as a professional golfer. His trade articles have appeared in USGA Golf Journal and PGA Magazine, as well as authoring the book, The Skeptical Golfer. In more recent years this skepticism led him into the field of social and political criticism, exchanging "making a living" for "living for making", that is, making the slightest dent in establishment hypocrisy and double standards.

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