Hating America

Yesterday, Bush gave a lecture on the concept of free speech in a democratic society. Let's take a look.

He said he welcomed "honest critics" who question the way the war is being conducted and the "loyal opposition" that points out what is wrong with his administration's approach.

In other words, the good critics are those who believe that going to war against Iraq was the right thing to do, and merely quibble about the operational details. If you've been against the war from the beginning, you can't be an "honest critic".

But he termed irresponsible the "partisan critics who claim that we acted in Iraq because of oil or because of Israel or because we misled the American people," as well as "defeatists who refuse to see that anything is right." With that description, Bush lumped the many Democrats who have accused him of twisting prewar intelligence with the few people, mostly outside the mainstream, who have raised the issues of oil and Israel.

So even if you correctly believed that Iraq didn't have a nuclear weapons program and wasn't an imminent threat, you're still a partisan. And still irresponsible.

Bush argued that irresponsible discussion harms the morale of troops overseas, emboldens the insurgents they are fighting and sets a bad example for Iraqis trying to establish a democratic government.

And here's the punch line: those bad, partisan critics are giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and are, by definition, traitors. Who didn't see that one coming?

"In a free society, there's only one check on political speech and that's the judgment of the American people," the president said to sustained applause from a friendly audience, a gathering of Veterans of Foreign Wars. "So I ask all Americans to hold their elected leaders to account and demand a debate that brings credit to our democracy, not comfort to our adversaries."

And thus, the voters should kick out the traitors who opposed this war. QED.

This all makes sense in a kind of twisted way, if you equate patriotism with a cult of personality, free speech with treason, and demand that those who were right about this war from the start should be disqualified from discussing it. In other words, it makes sense only if you assume that America is not at all like America. But apart from its incoherence, I think the President is missing another danger with his argument.

You see, I believe that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence and lied to the American people in order to justify the invasion of Iraq. Hence, according to Bush, I'm a traitor. And according to a CBS/NYT poll from December, so are 52% of Americans. The American people have rendered their judgment, and Bush is the one in the minority here. So perhaps Bush should take his own advice to heart, and shut the hell up and stop hating America.