George W. Bush, Hero, or Piltdown Man of La Mancha?

George Bush would like us to believe history will remember him as a hero. A man who stood by his convictions. But much like Don Quixote, who rose up against a perceived evil only to find he was chasing the unobtainable, Bush sees his cause as a noble one, even if it was all based in pure fantasy.

In doing so, Bush the younger drew his sword and spilt the blood of thousands. His little game of shoot em up has escalated into a full scale mash-up of Hell meets high-water. I don't care for the word "quagmire". The definition falls way short of describing how bad the situation in Iraq really is. Of course, there is nothing civil about civil war.

In truth, I doubt George W. Bush has ever ventured near La Mancha. Had he done so, he would have soon learned it was not inhabited by dragons. Still, I digress.

Lets move on to the "Piltdown Man." The reference may seem somewhat left field for those not familiar with the story, so here's the set-up.

Until the invasion of Iraq, Piltdown Man represented perhaps the most extraordinary hoax in modern history. As the story goes, a pair of archaeologists claimed to find a human skull in a gravel pit near the town of Piltdown, purported to be the five hundred thousand year old missing link between man and monkey. The skull was in fact constructed from parts of several different skulls, including the jaw of an orangutan. Varnish was then applied to give the finished product a look of consistency. Amazingly, it took the scientific establishment forty years to catch on.

Does this scenario sound at all familiar? Indeed it does!

George W, Bush wants us to believe that in forty years or so, history will recall his presidency as strong and steadfast. He sees himself riding off into the sunset mounted upon his trusty steed, the White Knight, the enemy of evil.

I, however don't see it happening that way. I suspect history will be far more accurate, and much less flattering. At best, George W. Bush will be regarded as the Don Quixote of presidents. Mission accomplished, the windmill is dead, Jim.

More likely, George W. Bush will be remembered as the reigning Piltdown Man, an unmitigated fraud that has pushed America back into the stone age.

Learn more about this author, B. Thomas Cooper.
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