An Open Letter To George W. Bush

Well, George, things haven't quite worked out as planned, have they?

Remember that day, long ago, when your father's people came to see you and asked you to run for the Presidency?

"What? Me?" you said. "Are you guys serious?"

But they were serious. Deadly serious.

"See, nowadays being President is kinda like being the nation's cheer-leader," they explained. "The real work goes on behind the scenes. You just gotta go out in front of the cameras and kinda catapult the propaganda. Dick and Donny will take care of the hard stuff."

You looked over at Karl Rove, standing in the corner with his arms crossed, nodding slowly.

"Wait a minute, guys," you said. "Governor is one thing. But being President is hard work. I don't wanna be stuck in D.C for the next four years, like Poppy was, with the media watching my every move..."

They promised you extended time on the ranch in Crawford. They promised to keep the press away. They talked about wireless transmitters, decoys and hand-picked audiences.

But what about the drugs? The booze? That National Guard thing?

"Don't worry," said Dick. "It's already been taken care of. Anyway, the press will be on your side. It's all fixed."

"Fixed? Whaddaya mean?"

"We're going back into Iraq, George. We're gonna finish the job on that bastard Saddam. You'll be a War President. The press will love you. Nobody criticizes a War President."

Your mind was reeling. You told them that you needed a few days to think about it.

You went home and talked to your family. You can still remember the look in your father's eye. His people may have talked him into going along with this thing, but he wasn't at all sure you were up to it. Your Mom kept looking over at Jeb when she talked. Even Laura looked worried. But this was an opportunity that the Bush family could not pass over.

"I'm just scared I could mess this up... big time," you confessed to Laura that night.

"Why don't you go talk to Billy?" she suggested. "You always feel better after you talk to Billy."

So next day you went to see the preacher. And that was when you got your vision.

"This is what God wants you to do, George! Think about it! Great changes are afoot in this world. America is now the world's only Superpower. This is our century, George! We can do whatever we want now. Peace at last in the Middle East! Democracy and freedom spreading across the globe! History will remember you as the Greatest President Ever! It's all part of God's plan..."

Billy talked about an eternal battle between Good and Evil, a battle which had now come to a climax. He said you had a special role to play, that God had brought you to this moment, that millions of believers would be praying for you every minute of every day. When you left the room, you felt like you were bathed in a glowing light.

That sure was a long time ago, wasn't it George? Are you still glad you took the job?

I know you've been pissed off at Dick, Karl and even Donny lately (even if you can't afford to say that in public). It took you a while to work out what they were all up to, didn't it? As long as everything was going great, what did it matter, right?

When did you start to wise up? Was it that day when you were sitting in the classroom and Andy told you "America is under attack?" Seven minutes you sat there, George. Seven!

Will you ever dare to tell the world what was going through your head that day?

You knew there had been warnings. You saw them come across your own desk. Were you wondering who did it? Or did you already know?

Was it your own boys who did the job, George? Professor Strauss' boys in the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) believe that violence, including the killing of innocents, is a justified means of triggering change. These are the neo-conservatives with whom you have aligned yourself, George.

You must have known about the PNAC's stated desire for a momentous event like 9/11, which would swing US public opinion behind their plans. Your own brother Jeb was involved with drafting those plans! But a full year before 9/11, his fellow PNAC neo-cons wrote that their plans to transform America would be slow and difficult to realise without "some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor." Was the 9/11 attack was that big PNAC event, George?

Here's what I really, really want to know, George...

Where you sitting there for seven minutes just wondering what to do? Or were you scared that you would get the blame?

Card only ever told you "America is under attack." So you didn't even know what sort of attack it was, did you? Weren't you curious, George? Didn't you want to jump out of your chair and find out what the hell was going on? Or - and this is what your supporters would call a big time Conspiracy Theory - did you know exactly what was going on?

You claim to be a Christian man of honour, George. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light." Isn't it about time you saw the Light and told us all the Truth?

Your administration is already doomed. This is the only Way for you to find personal redemption.

Sincerely,

"Gandhi"