Now that the World Series is over, baseball periodicals resort to all the old tricks to get through the off-season. A favorite is the “What ever happened to____?” article. Pick a moderately famous ballplayer who retired 20 years ago and find out what he’s been up to. More often than not, the answer is: fishing.
Baseball aside, what ever happened to the hunt for Osama bin Laden? He’s the guy who got our national preoccupation going 26 months ago. He pops up on video once in a while, but we can’t seem to find him. The face that launched the war on terrorism, the man GWB vowed to bring in “dead or alive” is still alive and not brought in. What happened to the search and destroy mission on al Qaeda, Osama’s international cadre of thugs? While the US Army is playing midwife to the “world’s newest democracy” in Iraq, al Qaeda is blowing up buildings in Saudi Arabia.
What ever happened to the anthrax killer? Some DC post offices were shut down recently on suspicion of anthrax contamination and last week someone sent white powder to the Washington Post and a Long Island tee vee station. John Ashcroft’s Justice Department did shut down a New Orleans cathouse a while back and he’s going after Greenpeace, but nothing on the anthrax killer.
What ever happened to the records of the Cheney Energy Task Force? He’s a smarty, that Tricky Dick Cheney. He knows the way to hide in plain sight is to throw the whole thing into litigation.
What ever happened to all those campaign promises from 2000? What happened to “restoring honor to the Oval Office,” “I want to be a uniter, not a divider,” “no child left behind”? I’m sure Mr. Bush will blame Osama for all his broken promises, but as we’ve already asked, what ever happened to Osama? Even if all the other promises go by the board, what about the promise to improve the lot of our military personnel and veterans? Why are military families falling below the poverty line back home while husbands and fathers are facing death in the streets of Fallujah and Nasiriyah? Why are troops wounded in Iraq shunted into sub-standard, rat-infested medical facilities? Why do they have to wait months to receive the treatment they need? Why is the federal government trying to prevent POWs from the ’91 Gulf War from collecting court-ordered reparations from Saddam’s defunct government? Must every dollar go to Cheney’s Halliburton cronies? Is there nothing we can spare the American survivors of Saddam’s torture cells?
Why can’t the families of 9-11 victims have full access to the intelligence we received in the summer of 2001? What did the president know and when did he know it? Will New York City ever receive the $40 billion in reconstruction funds the president promised in the weeks after 9-11? Why did George Bush run away on 9-11?
Whatever happened to Saddam Hussein? We pulled down his statues and painted over his portraits, but we can’t seem to lay our hands on the man himself. Where are the weapons of mass destruction, the biological and chemical weapons? Where’s the Iraqi nuclear program? Where’s the White House leaker who exposed the covert CIA agent spouse of Joseph Wilson?
Where was our pre-war intelligence? Where is our post-war planning? Both seem to be products of Paul Wolfowitz’s fevered imagination. Whatever happened to Jay Garner? Didn’t take long for our first post-war grand poobah to poop out, did it? His successor, L. Paul “Jerry” Bremer, doesn’t seem any smarter than Mr. Garner was, but we can’t keep rolling heads – makes us look indecisive.
What ever happened to the “road map for peace in the Middle East”? Everyone in that vehicle is fighting for the steering wheel as the bus goes over the cliff.
The president is known by his middle initial – “W.” It stands for “Walker,” as in “walk away when things get too messy.” Walk away, as he did from his military service, his DWI, his failed oil companies. When President Bush is confronted with an unpleasant truth, he just walks away. Why? Because he can. We can’t.
Cut and Run
Now that the World Series is over, baseball periodicals resort to all the old tricks to get through the off-season. A favorite is the “What ever happened to____?” article. Pick a moderately famous ballplayer who retired 20 years ago and find out what he’s been up to. More often than not, the answer is: fishing.
Baseball aside, what ever happened to the hunt for Osama bin Laden? He’s the guy who got our national preoccupation going 26 months ago. He pops up on video once in a while, but we can’t seem to find him. The face that launched the war on terrorism, the man GWB vowed to bring in “dead or alive” is still alive and not brought in. What happened to the search and destroy mission on al Qaeda, Osama’s international cadre of thugs? While the US Army is playing midwife to the “world’s newest democracy” in Iraq, al Qaeda is blowing up buildings in Saudi Arabia.
What ever happened to the anthrax killer? Some DC post offices were shut down recently on suspicion of anthrax contamination and last week someone sent white powder to the Washington Post and a Long Island tee vee station. John Ashcroft’s Justice Department did shut down a New Orleans cathouse a while back and he’s going after Greenpeace, but nothing on the anthrax killer.
What ever happened to the records of the Cheney Energy Task Force? He’s a smarty, that Tricky Dick Cheney. He knows the way to hide in plain sight is to throw the whole thing into litigation.
What ever happened to all those campaign promises from 2000? What happened to “restoring honor to the Oval Office,” “I want to be a uniter, not a divider,” “no child left behind”? I’m sure Mr. Bush will blame Osama for all his broken promises, but as we’ve already asked, what ever happened to Osama? Even if all the other promises go by the board, what about the promise to improve the lot of our military personnel and veterans? Why are military families falling below the poverty line back home while husbands and fathers are facing death in the streets of Fallujah and Nasiriyah? Why are troops wounded in Iraq shunted into sub-standard, rat-infested medical facilities? Why do they have to wait months to receive the treatment they need? Why is the federal government trying to prevent POWs from the ’91 Gulf War from collecting court-ordered reparations from Saddam’s defunct government? Must every dollar go to Cheney’s Halliburton cronies? Is there nothing we can spare the American survivors of Saddam’s torture cells?
Why can’t the families of 9-11 victims have full access to the intelligence we received in the summer of 2001? What did the president know and when did he know it? Will New York City ever receive the $40 billion in reconstruction funds the president promised in the weeks after 9-11? Why did George Bush run away on 9-11?
Whatever happened to Saddam Hussein? We pulled down his statues and painted over his portraits, but we can’t seem to lay our hands on the man himself. Where are the weapons of mass destruction, the biological and chemical weapons? Where’s the Iraqi nuclear program? Where’s the White House leaker who exposed the covert CIA agent spouse of Joseph Wilson?
Where was our pre-war intelligence? Where is our post-war planning? Both seem to be products of Paul Wolfowitz’s fevered imagination. Whatever happened to Jay Garner? Didn’t take long for our first post-war grand poobah to poop out, did it? His successor, L. Paul “Jerry” Bremer, doesn’t seem any smarter than Mr. Garner was, but we can’t keep rolling heads – makes us look indecisive.
What ever happened to the “road map for peace in the Middle East”? Everyone in that vehicle is fighting for the steering wheel as the bus goes over the cliff.
The president is known by his middle initial – “W.” It stands for “Walker,” as in “walk away when things get too messy.” Walk away, as he did from his military service, his DWI, his failed oil companies. When President Bush is confronted with an unpleasant truth, he just walks away. Why? Because he can. We can’t.