Dublin Opinion

Play the song while reading the text below.

Last night Bush told the American nation that he’s ordering 21,500 more troops into Iraq. Comparisons with The Vietnam War continue to abound, and some have likened the move to that of President Lyndon Johnson’s decision to increase troops in Vietnam and imagine that it’ll achieve the same level of success.

That such a move, which is contrary to the suggestions of the Iraq Survey Group, is so blatantly wrong has led some to think that Bush is not just bad at his job, he’s mad too.

Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist says that Iraq is “a quagmire of the vanities - a place where America is spending blood and treasure to protect the egos of men who won’t admit that they were wrong”.

Writing in the Daily Kos, psychiatrist Paul Minot says that Bush clearly has a Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

“What this means, mostly, is that he has rather desperate insecurities about himself, and compensates by constructing a grandiose self-image. Most of his relationships are either mirroring relationships–people who flatter him and reinforce his grandiosity–or idealized self-objects–people that he himself thinks alot of, and hence feels flattered by his association. Some likely perform both functions. Hence his weakness for sycophants like Harriet Miers, and powerful personalities like Dick Cheney.”

But, argues Minot, this is not to say that he’s psychotic.

“The lapses in reality-testing that he exhibits are the sort that can be readily explained by his characterological insensitivity to the feelings and perceptions of others, due to his persistently self-centered frame of reference. By applying Occam’s Razor to the question of what is psychologically driving Bush to endorse this “surge”, I think it can be readily explained by his narcissism.”

Now why would George use the lives of US soldiers and Iraqis, for that matter, like gambling chips just to save his political skin? Well, concludes, Minot, because he’s “that narcissistic, that desperate, and yes, that sociopathic as well.”

There’s also a book out called Bush on the Couch, written by psychiatrist Justin A. Frank which explores, along with others things, Bush’s “rigid and simplistic thought patterns, paranoia, and megalomania — and how they have driven him to invent adversaries so that he can destroy them.”

I wouldn’t say he’s mad, or bad in the sense of being evil or mendacious . He’s just a politician, albeit an incompetent one, who’s looking out for his own best interests. Of course, he’s also the world’s most powerful politician and as we know, power can go to a fella’s head.

“…I’m afraid expulsion is the ONLY answer…”

Update

From the Paul Krugman ‘Quagmire of the Vanities’ article:

Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science for his research on irrationality in decision-making, thinks [the proponents of the planned ’surge’] are delusional. Mr. Kahneman and Jonathan Renshon recently argued in Foreign Policy magazine that the administration’s unwillingness to face reality in Iraq reflects a basic human aversion to cutting one’s losses — the same instinct that makes gamblers stay at the table, hoping to break even.