The End Of The Affair

That's it. It's all over.

For George W. Bush, there is no way back from here. His party has imploded, his administration is in chaos, his army is on the verge of collapse, his country is morally bankrupt and very nearly financially bankrupt as well.

Here is the USA Today:

"We know that there's a hurricane coming, and it's going to hit the Republicans in November," says Charlie Cook of the non-partisan Cook Political Report. "We're just trying to figure out how big this thing is."

Big? Forget it.

Bi-partisan domestic US politics? Forget it.

"Worst president ever"? Forget it. Think "worst leader ever".

War crimes tribunals may seem insignificant by the time all this is over. Bush is gone, gone, gone. Let us just hope there is still some hope for the rest of us.

Three calamitous things have befallen Bush in the past 24 hours. Together, they indicate a point of no return:

1. Tom DeLay quit Congress. Whatever he and others in the GOP may say, the reason is so that he can concentrate on avoiding jail. He quits a Congress that his exploitive, unprincipled and power-hungry politics have brought into such deserved disrepute.

2. The Iraqi Interior Ministry announced that it would not use US-trained troops. At the same time, PM Jaafari is refusing to resign (Juan Cole: "He maintains he was elected fair and square by his party. Hard to argue with that"). These ominous signs reveal a Civil War which is now beyond the USA's control.

3. Hugo Chavez took control (by force) of two multinational oil fields. See my post below for more on this massively important story.

The USA has turned against Bush, the USA's Iraqi allies in Bagdhad have turned against Bush, and the world, which has always been against Bush, is now more against him than ever.

Perhaps most revealing of all is this recent Bush quote via Peak Oil News Clearinghouse:

I have -- much of my position was defined early on in my presidency when I told the world I thought that Kyoto was a lousy deal for America. And I tell you why it was a lousy deal for America. It meant that we had to cut emissions below 1990 levels, which would have meant I would have presided over massive layoffs and economic destruction...

I guess I should have started differently when I first became president and said we will invest in new technologies that will enable us to use fossil fuels in a much wiser way.

How sad. It's all about Dubya, see? How could you possibly expect him to preside over an economic downturn, when he had so much that he needed to prove to his father and the rest of the world?

Now Hugo Chavez is throwing down the gauntlet, and Bush - who tried to invade Venezuela for its oil, who tried to invade Iraq for its oil, who tried to bully the whole world into submission with a myopic vision of a militaristic US Empire - has got nothing.

It's over.