>> GUESTWORDS >> http://www.easthamptonstar.com/20040909/col5.htm >> >> The Unfeeling President >> I fault this president for not knowing what death >> is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds >> who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of >> D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for >> the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going >> to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable >> war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of >> survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower >> could bear. >> >> But this president does not know what death is. He >> hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the >> press, peering under the table for the weapons of >> mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him >> at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves >> to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling >> and waving, triumphal, a he-man. >> >> He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should >> mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech >> written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak >> of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate >> sacrifice for their country. >> >> But you study him, you look into his eyes and know >> he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in >> the depths of his being because he has no capacity >> for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility >> for the 1,000 dead young men and women who wanted >> to be what they could be. >> >> They come to his desk not as youngsters with mothers >> and fathers or wives and children who will suffer >> to the end of their days a terribly torn fabric of >> familial relationships and the inconsolable remembrance >> of aborted life . . . they come to his desk as a political >> liability, which is why the press is not permitted >> to photograph the arrival of their coffins from Iraq. >> >> How then can he mourn? To mourn is to express regret >> and he regrets nothing. He does not regret that his >> reason for going to war was, as he knew, unsubstantiated >> by the facts. He does not regret that his bungled >> plan for the war's aftermath has made of his mission-accomplished >> a disaster. He does not regret that, rather than controlling >> terrorism, his war in Iraq has licensed it. So he >> never mourns for the dead and crippled youngsters >> who have fought this war of his choice. >> >> He wanted to go to war and he did. He had not the >> mind to perceive the costs of war, or to listen to >> those who knew those costs. He did not understand >> that you do not go to war when it is one of the options >> but when it is the only option; you go not because >> you want to but because you have to. >> >> Yet this president knew it would be difficult for >> Americans not to cheer the overthrow of a foreign >> dictator. He knew that much. This president and his >> supporters would seem to have a mind for only one >> thing -- to take power, to remain in power, and to >> use that power for the sake of themselves and their >> friends. >> >> A war will do that as well as anything. You become >> a wartime leader. The country gets behind you. Dissent >> becomes inappropriate. And so he does not drop to >> his knees, he is not contrite, he does not sit in >> the church with the grieving parents and wives and >> children. He is the president who does not feel. He >> does not feel for the families of the dead, he does >> not feel for the 35 million of us who live in poverty, >> he does not feel for the 40 percent who cannot afford >> health insurance, he does not feel for the miners >> whose lungs are turning black or for the working people >> he has deprived of the chance to work overtime at >> time-and-a-half to pay their bills - it is amazing >> for how many people in this country this president >> does not feel. >> >> But he will dissemble feeling. He will say in all >> sincerity he is relieving the wealthiest 1 percent >> of the population of their tax burden for the sake >> of the rest of us, and that he is polluting the air >> we breathe for the sake of our economy, and that he >> is decreasing the quality of air in coal mines to >> save the coal miners' jobs, and that he is depriving >> workers of their time-and-a-half benefits for overtime >> because this is actually a way to honor them by raising >> them into the professional class. >> >> And this litany of lies he will versify with reverences >> for God and the flag and democracy, when just what >> he and his party are doing to our democracy is choking >> the life out of it. >> >> But there is one more terribly sad thing about all >> of this. I remember the millions of people here and >> around the world who marched against the war. It was >> extraordinary, that spontaneous aroused oversoul of >> alarm and protest that transcended national borders. >> Why did it happen? After all, this was not the only >> war anyone had ever seen coming. There are little >> wars all over he world most of the time. >> >> But the cry of protest was the appalled understanding >> of millions of people that America was ceding its >> role as the last best hope of mankind. It was their >> perception that the classic archetype of democracy >> was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic >> republic in history was turning its back on the future, >> using its extraordinary power and standing not to >> advance the ideal of a concordance of civilizations >> but to endorse the kind of tribal combat that originated >> with the Neanderthals, a people, now extinct, who >> could imagine ensuring their survival by no other >> means than pre-emptive war. >> >> The president we get is the country we get. With each >> president the nation is conformed spiritually. He >> is the artificer of our malleable national soul. He >> proposes not only the laws but the kinds of lawlessness >> that govern our lives and invoke our responses. The >> people he appoints are cast in his image. The trouble >> they get into and get us into, is his characteristic >> trouble. >> >> Finally, the media amplify his character into our >> moral weather report. He becomes the face of our sky, >> the conditions that prevail. How can we sustain ourselves >> as the United States of America given the stupid and >> ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive >> lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? >> He cannot mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy >> as to make us mourn for ourselves. >> >> The novelist E.L. Doctorow has a house in Sag Harbor. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html