Memo: Washington to Bush

Memo: Gen. George Washington (Ret.) to President George W. Bush, Jr.
Date: Oct. 29, 2003
Place: Mt. Vernon, VA

President Bush, you’re losing it!

I didn’t fight a guerrilla war for eight and one half years against the British to see you put our Republic at risk with your neocon-inspired Iraq War policies. The gallant Contintental Army, and our militias, made huge sacrifices, (remember Valley Forge?), in order to gain that magnificent victory, which, incidentally, Mr. President, was aided by the “Old Europe,” which Donald Rumsfeld recently disparaged.

Don’t you ever forget, it was one of Bavaria’s greatest sons, the Baron Johann de Kalb, that died fighting by our side, at Camden, South Carolina. And, it was France’s aid-France’s Navy and France’s spirited Army-that finally secured our national cause at Yorktown, VA. The sterling contributions of Germany’s Friedrich von Steuben; Poland’s Casimir Pulaski; Ireland’s John Barry, (“Father of the American Navy”); and many other sons, too, of “Old Europe,” will forever live in my memory.

I’m going to be blunt Mr. President: Get out of Iraq, now! Let the UN take over. Cut your losses, and more importantly, begin to clean your political house of all the dead wood that has gotten you into this horrific Iraqi mess.

Start with the odious Richard Perle! He was the main instigator of the Iraq invasion. Delete his name from the Pentagon’s Defense Advisory Board. Then, chop away in the Defense Department: ax Rumsfeld and Paul “Dr. Strangelove” Wolfowitz. Over at the Office of National Security, show Condi Rice the door, along with that relic of the Contragate era, Elliott Abrams. At State, say good-bye to Colin Powell. His flop, in presenting the dubious case for a U.S.-led war against Iraq at the UN on Feb. 5, 2003, was a gross international embarrassment.

The American people deserve to have a president who will always put the national interest first. If you’re honest with yourself, (and I hope that you will be), there is no way to justify this Iraq madness as being in “our” national interest. You have been conned by slick operatives from “Big Oil,” the “Military Industrial Complex,” and, particularly, by the “Israel First Brigade.” In the latter category, you will find, of course, Perle, and others of that ilk: such as, Joe Lieberman, Tom Lantos, Mortimer B. Zuckerman, Tom DeLay, Arlen “Magic Bullet” Specter and Charles Schumer.

As for your Vice President, Dick Cheney! Well, I’m sorry, but you’re stuck with him for the balance of your term. Suggestion: send him over to the Senate to preside over its proceedings with a huge sign wrapped around his neck, that reads: “Personal Property of Halliburton and Enron!”

Mr. President, we’re all human! I’ve made my shares of mistakes, too. At the battles of Long Island and Brandywine, I allowed the British General, William Howe, to outflank me. Fortunately, the Continental Army’s resilience permitted me to recover from those errors and to stay in the field. In a miraculous kind of way, the Revolutionary War, even before there was a national government, created a national consciousness.

National consciousness in my day was rooted in the people, and in their hopes for peace. I saw clearly that dream in my brave comrades in arms: Rhode Island’s Nathanael Greene; Maryland’s John Eager Howard; Delaware’s Robert Kirkwood; Massachusetts’ Henry Knox; New Jersey’s Daniel Morgan; South Carolina’s Andrew Pickens, Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion and Thomas Sumter; Virginia’s “Light Horse Harry” Lee and William Washington; New Hampshire’s John Sullivan; and finally, Pennsylvania’s Anthony Wayne, James Potter and Frederick Antes.

In your time, the hopes for peace are reflected in those protesting your Iraqi war policies. They are also beginning to show up in the latest polls that reveal growing disenchantment with the Iraq quagmire.

As an aside, there is no way I would have ever been seen shaking hands with British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, who regularly showed no mercy to our troops. Yet, you are not only are seen shaking hands with Israel’s Ariel “Bloody” Sharon, you have even invited him to the White House! Have you, too, forgotten what happened to the men of the USS Liberty? Don’t you know who sent Jonathan Pollard to steal our military secrets? Doesn’t the name, Rachel Corrie, mean anything to you?

Mr. President, I want you to read my 1796 “Farewell Address.” Now, I know that you don’t like to read and that you also have a serious problem listening to advice. Trust me! It’s time, my dear Sir, for you to “get over” all of that! For your country’s sake, read my words, carefully, especially my strong caution against any future government forming any “passionate attachments,” to ANY foreign countries. NO EXCEPTIONS! NONE!

Finally, Mr. President, leave the peoples of the Middle East to forge their own destinies. Bring our brave troops home from Iraq. And, stop subsidizing the terror of the Sharon Gang, it will only continue to make us more enemies in the Islamic World. If you persist, Mr. President, in putting the Republic at risk with your reckless foreign entanglements, you may forever forfeit the magnificent accomplishments of the patriots of old.