When You Are Too Crazy for the Generals, You Are Too Crazy for America

Something rotten in the State of Denmark, to borrow a lump of prose from old Bandy Legs Bill, the Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon. President Bush II has proven himself to be so inept, dogmatic, and extreme he has drawn fire from that well known bastion of progressive socialism (tee hee), the US Corps of Retired Diplomats and Generals, Inc. Normally trotted out on cable news to warmly approve the deaths of thousands by playing with toy planes and using technical military dirty talk that excites the anchors, the dogs of war finally seem ready to bite the hand that fed them.

Yes, the people who brought you Gulf War I, Grenada, Panama, Cruise missiles in Europe back in the Cold War days (remember those protests?), and so on believe that Bush is too aggressive and confrontational. Now that's saying something.

A group of retired US ambassadors and senior military figures is set to urge voters to remove President George Bush from office in this year's election.

Bush conducts foreign policy (indeed, any policy) like the super-rich scion of an inbred chunk of the aristocracy he is. All his life, his mistakes have been someone else's mess to deal with. Now of course its no longer a question of drunkenly wrapping his MG around a lamppost and Pop making a contribution to the Police Benevolent Fund (or such like) so that it goes away, but Bush's M/O is pretty much the same.

So he's freaking out the hawk establishment. Who else? Well, this week US scientists, frustrated by the White House's lack of action on any environmental issue, have decided to publicly reveal the extent of their ignored advice to the President and to try and galvanize the public to greater action.

Ten leading US climate scientists spoke on Tuesday of the need for more urgent action to tackle global warming.

Good luck to them, in the land where one of my neighbors uses his lawn tractor to drive the 100 yards from his house to the store.

Regardless of the end result of these attacks from various establishment figures, the fact that they have chosen to do so publicly reveals two things.

1) Bush's policies are so unpopular among smart people (America; clever is a virtue, not a vice.)

2) Bush's team has been uniquely successful in pissing off career civil servants and advisors to the point that they are willing to break government omerta (cf. Richard Clarke, General Anthony Zinni, this latest lot, and most of the experienced members of the National Security team).

Bush claimed that he wanted to be a uniter, not a divider. He seems to be succeding, but perhaps not in the way he intended...