At Least the Romans Knew Caligula Was Nuts

The day after the 4,000th U.S. military death in Iraq, I listened to George W. Bush maunder about how these dead soldiers had died out of patriotism for the “honor” of the United States.

I almost pulled off the highway in disbelief. I had just realized that any politician–especially a politician who had dodged active military service-- saying something so trivial, so stupid and so callous must truly be delusional.

Then it occurred to me that’s probably the case with Bush: He's more nuts than ancient Rome’s Caligula. At least with Caligula his contemporaries could see the emperor needed to be in a looney bin.

Not so with Bush. He appears, superficially, to be just another country-club Republican jock who never evidences having read a book, never evidences empathy with the poor, never evidences having tried to think of anything but himself and his next pleasures.

Alas, in Bush’s case, that pleasure flows from pretending to be President of the United States. He actually can find profound the war advice of his vice president, Richard Cheney, who spurned wearing his country’s uniform. What do Cheney and Bush know about honor, except to mouth the word to palliate the survivors of the dead soldiers?

One grants that Bush’s acting works. The citizenry elected him twice. As the old Romans used to say, the voice of the people is the voice of God. So Bush must be deluding the Old Republican in the Sky too. By Allah, that's hard to contemplate.