ROGER SIMON COLUMN
JANUARY 17, 2005
WASHINGTON - - President Bush recently told the Washington Post the public "ratified" the Iraq war when it re-elected him last November and, therefore, there is no reason to hold him or anyone else accountable for any mistakes made there.
There are any number of problems with this including the fact that only 50.8 percent of those who voted cast ballots for Bush and only 30.8 percent of eligible voters voted for him.
Not all that huge a ratification.
Also, while I certainly don't dispute that Bush won the last election, people voted for him for all sorts of reasons. Some people didn't want to switch presidents during wartime. Others liked and trusted him more than his opponent. Others agreed with his positions on gay marriage and abortion. Others felt his values were the same as their values. And some endorsed his invasion and occupation of Iraq.
There were a lot of reasons that people voted for George Bush. But to pick just one of them and say the public ratified his Iraq policy by re-electing him seems to be stretching the facts.
There is another problem. Opinions change quickly in this country. The election was held back last November. This is mid-January and a new poll shows that the public is much less pleased with our Iraq policy than President Bush currently is.
According to a University of Pennsylvania National Annenberg Election Survey conducted last week, "54 percent said the situation (in Iraq) had not been worth going to war over, only 29 percent said the election January 30 would produce a stable government, and the public was about evenly split over whether the United States should bring troops home as soon as possible or wait until a stable government was established."
The poll went on to say that 67 percent of all respondents, and 46 percent of Bush voters, said they agreed with the statement: "Democracy and freedom in Iraq are important, but the war has cost the United States too much in lives and money already to stay much longer."
As far as "ratifications" go, this seems to be a weak one.
I suppose it might not matter much - - after all, public opinion swings back and forth - - but Bush's statement that members of his administration need not be held accountable for their mistakes in Iraq is potentially troublesome.
What if the administration thinks invading Iran will also be easy and that our occupation of Iran will be greeted by Iranians strewing flowers in our path? Shouldn't we learn something - - anything - - from what happened in Iraq? Aren't mistakes worth examining?
The philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
And how much do we really want to repeat Iraq?