by Bob Newland

I'm fully aware that taking shots at George Bush is not likely to enhance my position with a majority of the readers of this magazine. Today, according to a pollster or two, 90% of Americans approve of GB's performance. But, it's my magazine, goddammit, and I feel pretty strongly about this. I think the man is the worst kind of cynical, hypocritical liar.

He's also pretty lucky. He's lucky he had Saddam Hussein to work over. Hussein had to be taken out, no question. What he did, what he ordered done, was so awful it defies characterization. But Bush helped him do it.

The United States has sold arms to Iraq for years, knowing what a maggot he is. We didn't even speak above a whisper when he gassed his own people. After all, they were only Kurds. When Iraq attacked Iran, unprovoked, we actually cheered. Well, actually, we hoped they'd both lose. And, of course, they did. After eight years, they signed a truce, having fought to a draw. Having used up the lives of nearly a million men. But, they were only Arabs and Persians. Towelheads.

Last July, April Glaspie, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told Saddam that the United States wasn't concerned with border disputes among the Arabs. Within a couple of weeks, he'd captured Kuwait. Suddenly, sensing a possibility of a change in oil availability, the United States was concerned with Arab border disputes. So, we kicked his ass. Well, his army's ass. As of this writing, he's back killing his own people again.

But George is a hero, enjoying a popularity rating unheard of heretofore. And George, the opponent to safe, legal abortion, is saying that the cure for street crime is to kill the perpetrators. George, who as CIA chief oversaw the payment of about $100,000 a year to Manuel Noriega, knowing that Manuel was a drug dealer, is saying that stiffer penalties are needed for drug offenders.

And isn't it ironic that George's Secretary of Defense, Richard Cheney, sought shelter from the draft during Vietnam as a grad student? That his Vice-President, J. Danforth Quayle, had a father influential enough to get him into the National Guard during Vietnam at a time when nobody else could get in?

This is the same George Bush who couldn't bring himself to strongly condemn the Chinese for killing thousands of students who simply were asking for representative government. But, then, they were only Chinks.

The Gulf War was orchestrated. We were told to expect heavy casualties. We were reminded we were up against the fourth-largest army in the world. Then we kicked hell out of 'em. We inflicted maybe 100,000 deaths. We suffered only 120 of our own killed. So now George is a hero. And graciously so. He gives the credit to the "fine young men in the desert," playing on our memories of how Vietnam vets were, are, treated. George knew how this would work.

Oh, yes, there was the chance it might not work as well as it did. But, even so, we were up against Saddam Hussein, the Butcher of Baghdad. It was worth casualties, even heavy casualties. In the end, we were gonna win, and George was gonna be a hero. He knew that. He knew also that we would forget, for a while, at least through November, 1992, that his, and his predecessor's, policies largely got us into this mess.

He knew we'd forget for a while that since Ron "I can't recall" Reagan took office, the United States went from the world's largest lendor to the world's largest debtor. He knew we'd forget for a while about his friends' (his son's, for Christ's sake) looting of the S & L's. He knew we'd forget for a while that each of us who works for a living is having a considerably more difficult time making rent payments than we were five years a ago.

Do I have a solution? Well, I know it's not Albert Gore. It's not any Democrat I can think of. But it's not any Republican I can think of either. Maybe it's you and me. Maybe it's tossing out the stupid sonsabitches who throw us time-wasting debates over flag-burning and abortion and helmet laws. Maybe it's getting to know who our next-door neighbor is, and working with him to make our neighborhood the best in America. Maybe.