The prepubescent mind of George W.

I have a seven-year-old daughter, whose seven-year-old mind is a clinical study in determined opposition to mature, sensible advice. Whatever I suggest as a parent, she as a child is sure to treat as a conspiracy to upset her well-ordered world, which is generally quite divorced from the given situation's surrounding reality. Since I'm not a pediatric neurologist, I know not what synaptic connections that form mature thought are struggling to find their way. All I do know is that most people grow out of such determination to battle maturity.

George hasn't. Hence mature, sensible and (some literally) parental counsel against military involvement in Iraq was sure to be confronted with indignant rebelliousness. Similar advice against an escalation of the mayhem was also, for sure, to meet the same fate. No one tells George what George should do. Any sound advice contrary to his natural inclinations is perceived as intrusive, parental-like authority meant only to upset his comfortable, self-defined reality. To wit ...

The Joint Chiefs -- those military folks on whom George dumps loads of adoration as long as they pat him on the head -- have fervently and persistently warned "that a modest troop increase could lead to more attacks by al-Qaeda, provide more targets for Sunni insurgents and fuel the jihadist appeal for more foreign fighters to flock to Iraq to attack U.S. troops."

What's the infantile mind to do? Why of course: increase our presence, encourage more attacks, provide more targets and fuel foreign jihadist enlistment. Take that.

Probably the oddest excuse-making for George's behavior comes from experienced enabler Philip Zelikow, formerly of the State Department. "The president wasn't satisfied with the recommendations [reality] he was getting, and he thought we need a strategy that was more purposeful and likely to succeed if the Iraqis could make that possible."

His implication was that the Joint Chiefs, as advice-dispensing badasses focused exclusively on ruining George's day, conspired to present Junior only with recommendations void of purpose and designed to fail. Only our plucky president in his wide-eyed and searching innocence recognized the need for a strategy "likely to succeed."

Zekilow's analysis would as funny as it is odd, if it wasn't grounded in something so tragically puerile.

And naturally the millions of other amateurs telling George two months ago, in the form of pulling a lever, what to do was met with a sudden case of ... presidential deafness. Whenever my daughter fails to heed a request for some certain chore to be done, her later and not uncommon defense is that she simply didn't hear the request. Similarly the White House has dispatched its spokesman, Tony Snow. National election? You think that had something to do with the war? No, no. We didn't hear that at all. (It was about corruption, if you're wondering.)

The best evidence, however, for the case to be made that a mere, developmentally arrested child with all the childlike attributes of rebelliousness and unreasonableness reigns in the White House is the latter's reaction to the Iraq Study Group.

To quote the WP once again: "Some staff members on the National Security Council became enamored of the idea of sending more troops to Iraq in part because it was not a key feature of Baker-Hamilton." You're permitted one guess as to where the NSC got the idea it could formulate key policy based on your-mama-wears-army-boots nose-thumbing.

My daughter's occasionally exasperating immaturity can be forgiven. She's only seven. George is 60.

Comments

[Jay Randal]

George W. Bush is a spoiled infantile brat, because his snobby elite parents treat him like a child and raised him to be petulent fool.

[Bernie]

George Bush has the serious,hard-to-treat character/personality disorder of narcissism. People with this disorder think they are better and smarter than everyone else. They also lack a sense of empathy. Narcissists (think OJ) can be very charming unless they are crossed, then beware. This disorder is just a step away from being a full blown sociopath.

[ohmeom]

From my perspective in watching and listening to GWB(sometimes I turn the sound off), he appears to be uplifted as if it is all about him. No matter what the subject. Since he has the make the final decision(the decider title has boosted his ego), it becomes all about him. The Repub congress fed his ego and now it is too inflated to come back to earth. Some one is going to have to burst that daggum bubble. Dad and Mom should spank that a...and make him behave(he really is a child you know).

[frannie]

Georgie hasn't matured because of his drinking. When you start drinking very young and become an alcoholic your brain stays at that age and never progresses to maturity.

[Brain Oddi]

Bush is war criminal plain and simple. It's a matter for the International Criminal court. First the adults in the USA need to pull him out of the White House, shackle him and send him of for trial/judgment.

[mike strasser]

I agree with all the above but especially with Brain Odd.
Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfield (to name the obvious) are all war criminals and should be sent to the Hague

[LANCE]

I say, turn Georgie over to Cindy Sheehan and her Code Pink moms of dead soldier boys.

[RicardoT]

Somehow I can't help but feel the world would be a better place had pm's daughter been president instead of the one we have.

[Carol Davidek-Waller]

I agree that Bush is outrageously immature and probably psychologically damaged.
That being said, we should not ignore the powerful interests that are jerking Bush's strings, all of whom are deleriously happy with the way things are going.
They love it that Bush with his odd mannerisms and incoherent dialogue is taking the heat for their montrously selfish, undemocratic, morally reprehensible and traitorous agenda.
The American Enterprise Institute is the group that has been pushing the purge. They and their ilk are part of small group of Bush insiders who have profited immensely from the Bush administration's policies.
Israel, a country that has a disproportionate influence on US politics, loves what we are doing in the Middle East and can't wait until Bush starts dropping bombs on Iran and Syria.
Big oil, the deep pockets that put Bush in the White House, is drooling over the huge profits its going to make from the Iraqi oil fields. Any minute now the puppet Iraqi government is going to sign into law a bill allowing them to operate with impunity and take the profits out of the country.
Don't look for the price gouging to stop when US and British oil monopolies seize Iraqi oil. With more control over the supply of oil, they will have an even greater ability to squeeze us.
The thing about the Bush presidency is that it governs for the benefit of very narrow group of family and friends.
These folks who are the power behind the Bush presidency don't give a rip about the rest of us or the future of the nation.
With Bush or someother sly simpleton, they will continue to cannabalize the nation unless they are shut down and the holes, through which they crawled into power, plugged.

[rk]

Someone check GWs childhood. His behavior seems to indicate that something major happened between ages 5-10 that he wasn't able to handle the emotional pain, wasn't able or allowed to grieve, etc. From this would stem his inablilty to handle failure, his alcoholism, his at times immature attitudes, etc.

[Tom D]

Bush is opposed to trying diplomacy with Iran and Syria. That's like a child covering his own eyes so that you won't see him. Diplomacy by snubbing isn't likely to be effective.

[smart guy]

Wow, what a bunch of morons