Wednesday, January 17, 2007
(2:23 PM) | Anonymous:
On Sacrifice
Friends,Last night Jim Lehrer of PBS interviewed President Bush for almost thirty minutes. The topic being, of course, the renewal of the war in Iraq. Bush employed the usual pabulum, but with an overwhelming emphasis upon how ultimately important this war is and how devastating the consequences will be if we do not succeed and fully succeed. Towards the end of the interview, Lehrer noted what an enormous importance the president gave this war and recalled how presidents in time of war called upon the people to sacrifice, and asked why the President had never called for sacrifice and only spoke of the sacrifice of the military and their families. Bush became unusually flustered, apparently not having been prompted on this, and then immediately said that he would not raise taxes as a way of sacrifice because that would set back the economy and it was ultimately important that the economy flourish so that the people can be happy. But Lehrer continued to probe him, a probing that obviously became a challenge to Bush, and all that he could reply was that people suffer in seeing the war on TV, and that this is the sacrifice of the people in this war.
LEHRER: Let me ask you a bottom-line question, Mr. President. If it is as important as you've just said -- and you've said it many times -- as all of this is, particularly the struggle in Iraq, if it's that important to all of us and to the future of our country, if not the world, why have you not, as president of the United States, asked more Americans and more American interests to sacrifice something?....
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, you know, I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night.
Apparently the media ignored this interview, but I found it to be most revealing, as did the commentators who followed the interview. Sacrifice is clearly a category foreign to Bush, who can only associate the consequences of the war for Americans with happiness, and can only associate evil or destructiveness with our enemies, and enemies of whom we are truly ignorant, as Bush demonstrated in all he said of them. It was like encountering a contemporary Manichean. No, that is not true, for I don't think that he really believes anything, except for the ultimate importance of himself, his clan, and his allies. But I am intrigued that with all of the counseling sources available to him, none prepared him for the topic of sacrifice, despite the enormous sacrifices which his administration demands, including the sacrifice of the destiny of America itself. It is also revealing that despite his born again conversion and constant professions of the Christian faith he is simply incapable of thinking about sacrifice, but does he thereby speak for a new America, or a new American faith?
