Liberal Grace

Could our president be that shockingly ignorant?

I heard it again, this time on the Al Franken show. Listen to the MP3 clip (3.5 min, 600K) from the July 10 show.

According to Peter W. Galbraith and others, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, Bush still did not understand the differences between Sunnis and Shiites!

Even though I don't like Bush I just can't bring myself to believe our president could be so appallingly ignorant.

If this charge is true, the level of Bush's ignorance about the country he was going o occupy, control and rebuild almost defies analogy. But I'll try: It would be like:

* It would be like someone aspiring to seize the Pope's job but not understanding the difference between Catholics and Protestants.

* someone wanting to take over the Mayo Clinic but not understanding that there are men and women.

* someone wanting to take control of Chevron but not understanding the difference between oil and gas.

* someone trying to unseat Bill Gates at Microsoft without understanding the difference between software and hardware.

* someone running for US President without being aware that there are Democrats and Republicans

I realize how ridiculous and extreme these analogies are but one has to reach to a very high level of cluelessness to describes Bush's accused level of ignorance on this defining point of the country he wanted to invade and rebuild.

Peter , W. Galbraith has a book: The End of Iraq : How American Incompetence Created a War Without End

I haven't read it, so I can't personally recommend it. Considering Galbraith's strong credentials, I'm putting it on my own to-read list.

posted by LiberalGrace at 11:10 PM