War Fever

...foolish firebug who set himself alight trying to ignite Armageddon in the Middle East, now frantically peeing his own pants to douse the flame?

…or an implacable armchair Zhukov crushing Fallujah in deadly rings of steel and righteous determination?

No question the White House is pushing the second version.

And for that a lot of people in Fallujah are going to die.

Call them collateral damage in the main battle: the U.S. presidential election.

The reports about Rove’s “No War in 2004” diktat were obviously greatly exaggerated.

Absent any shiny election-year credentials as conqueror, leader, or wealthmaker, Bush has decided to focus on process, not results.

The process: war.

Bush came out of the closet as our “war president” during his notorious interview with Tim Russert.

In B-school speak our prez has decided to “return to his core competency”: knocking things down and screwing things up.

Apparently it was decided we needed to intensify the war in Iraq in a concerted effort to obscure, overshadow, and supersede Kerry and his authentic warrior credentials with some high profile, 21st century Sturm und Drang.

The Rove scenario has Kerry reprising his Vietnam-era role: not as hero but as anti-war bellyacher a.k.a. traitor and party pooper who dares to “undermine our troops again” by trying to interfere with the slaughter and our innocent appreciation of it.

Karen Hughes and the usual GOP suspects are hard at work denigrating Kerry’s Vietnam achievements and impugning his integrity. One of the most ludicrous — or shameful, if Bush wins the election — artifacts of this campaign will be the US News and World Reports cover photograph contrasting the red, white, and blue proud Bush in full military fig with Kerry skulking along in civilian polyester under an immense helmet of blow-dried hair.

At the same time, Bush gives the American people what they want: a massive exhibition of remorseless American firepower in Fallujah.

Bush’s gift to us is to let us share, at least vicariously via Wolf Blitzer, the overpowering thrill of leveling a city block filled with faceless Arabs with a load of AC-130 ordnance.

We might be in the wrong place and the wrong time and with no good options. But cutting loose with a “precision” tank and gunship assault against a crowd of desperate insurgents scuttling through Fallujah’s ramshackle slums gives us that feeling of power and potency that lasts as long as a hit of crack..

Never mind that it exacerbates the political and security crisis in Iraq and exposes our hundred thousand plus troops in Iraq to the murderous rage of the inhabitants of the dismal country they will be occupying, fighting, and dieing in for the rest of the decade.

We will deal with that after the election — or never.

I guess that’s why we aren’t supposed to see coffin photos yet. The Iraq war is about immediate gratification and endlessly postponed and easily ignored consequences.

War Bush-style is more of a journey than a destination, doncha see? And we’re all invited along for the ride.

Maybe there will be a time for Bush to parade his manly, dignified grief over the fallen after fear-stoked binge of revenge and violence has run its course and we ache to demonstrate our profound humanity and fill the void in our exhausted, shame-filled souls.

Can Bush distract the American public with a series of splashy blitzkriegs against dehumanized Arab fanatics, thugs, and sadists?

Or will his poll numbers follow the future of our desperately mismanaged adventure in Iraq into bloody oblivion?

The Iraq war is a titanic failure of moral and political leadership, with tremendous costs and terrible and irremediable consequences. Even with the immense resources and initiative available to the president of the United States, the truth can’t be hidden from people who are willing to see it.

It becomes ever more clear that the election is not about Bush vs. Kerry.

It’s about us.

Whether we as a people will endure the continued misrule of a president who isn’t trying to shoot his way out of trouble in Iraq…

…as much as he is trying to kill his way back into the White House.

If Bush wins the election, don’t blame Kerry…

…blame us.