I'm back and I'm Angry

We discussed Rumsfeld's disgraceful response to the troops in Kuwait yesterday and covered Maureen Dowd's commentary on it this morning. This incident confirms my really low opinion of Donald Rumsfeld and as a veteran upset me. But the thing that really sent me over the edge was this picture.

Do you want to play Army?

Maureen Dowd said it well:

The president loves dressing up to play soldier. To rally Camp Pendleton marines facing extended deployments in Iraq, he got gussied up in an Ike D-Day-style jacket, with epaulets and a big presidential seal on one lapel and his name and "Commander in Chief" on the other.

When he really had a chance to put on a uniform and go someplace where the enemy was invisible and there was no exit strategy and our government was not leveling with us about how bad it was, W. wasn't so high on the idea. But now that it's just a masquerade - giving a morale boost to troops heading off someplace where the enemy's invisible and there's no exit strategy and the government's not leveling with us about how bad it is - hey, man, it's cool.

Rumsfeld may be incompetent and arrogant but Bush is just a sorry little man who has a history of failing at everything he has done. He pulled every string available to escape a real war but has not hesitated to send young Americans off to the wrong war at the wrong time without adequate equipment to boost his sorry little ego. He is a sorry little man who considers the military his own set of toy army men to play war with as he sees fit. Although many of us see it now it will soon be obvious to all that his presidency was a dangerous failure.