Looking back at Bush

President Bush initiated a war against the country of Iraq based on some kind of animosity towards Saddam Hussein, and in which eventually a half a million persons perished. His big failure, arguably, was/is that what he did has not been properly digested and understood ---- for example by the intellectual elites. And so there is no clear precedent that has been set; he simply went off on his own tangent. This does not tell us what to do, now, in Iran. He acted in isolation, ourside of the life of the country. It was very demented. One may assume that, if anyone cares, persons like B. and Cheney will just continue on saying what they always have: "I am right." But this does not help set any example that is helpful in regard to the identity of a nation. Saying simply that “I am right” is to refuse to participate in the life of the nation. It sounds like a case of a dementia, related to a case of American Individualism. “I am right" entails too much individualism. "If you do not agree with me, screw you.” That may be a perfectly good thing to say in certain contexts, but it doesn't work for government. It is not how democracy works; it is not how modernity has proceeded up until now; and, finally it is not in the real sense how capitalist methods of social organization work. Is it really necessary for me to say any more? The president of a modern democracy has an obligation, as Bush knew well, to contribute to that particular nation’s role in history. Bush failed, because he never did identify with nation but, in a case of demented American Individualism syndrome, thought history pre-empted nation. Nation, of course, implies group, and he was clawing away at the existence of the group. This is the trap that the conservative tradition leads to.