Incompetence Gets Medals, Sacrifice Gets the Boot

Here is what moral values boil down to in George W. Bush's presidency:

• The more you screw up, the more lavishly you will be rewarded, especially if the screwing up reflects badly on George W. Bush. Anyone out there want a Congressional Medal of Freedom? Hey, no problem. Just pretend you're the Director of Central Intelligence before the invasion of Iraq, and tell the President that it's a "slam dunk" that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Or pretend you're the top administrator for the U.S. Occupation of Iraq, and cause a firestorm of rioting by disbanding Saddam Hussein's entire military - hundreds of thousands of men - and refusing to pay them their salaries. It's easy to get the CMF in Bush's administration. Just make a total mess of everything.
• If your policies have been a catastrophic failure, don't, under any circumstances, admit even the smallest mistake; instead, say the policies were a "catastrophic success." Say that success is success and say that failure is success. Say that black is white, that 2 plus 2 equals 47, that dead is alive, that chaos and violence are peace and freedom - and hope that no one will remember that a man named Adolph Hitler once said the same things to justify similar policies. Of course, if you are George W. Bush, you wouldn't have enough knowledge of history to even be aware yourself that Hitler said the same things you are saying.
• After you are elected to a second term by a bare majority, and after over a thousand American soldiers have been killed and thousands more have been wounded and maimed, or psychologically and emotionally scarred, perhaps for life; and while hundreds more American soldiers continue to fight and die under conditions of the utmost terror and horror ... throw a lavish and astronomically expensive inauguration party, with dozens of inaugural balls, and lunch with the President for sale for a mere $250,000. Don't spare any expense, or deprive yourself of any physical or political pleasure, while the young men and women you asked to sacrifice their lives are dying like flies.

If, however, your moral values run along different lines than George W. Bush's, and you value, admire, and respect eloquent and powerful writing that exposes the hollowness of what passes for morality and ethical behavior in George W. Bush's administration, read this.