Three Words Revealed W's Inability to Lead

This will be remembered as the week when President Bush lost control over the Iraq war debate.
-E.J. Dionne

Finally.

He should never have had control over the war debate anyway. Have you ever worked or dealt with someone who tried to rush things through so fast that you became discombobulated and confused -- and it worked to their advantage?

I have, and it's a form of rope-a-dope that is very clearly a strategy. Fast talkers are often swindlers. In this case, the Bush administration urged urgency ("we don't have time to talk about it!") and got their way.

What Dionne suggests is something very healthy. Mr. Bush should NEVER have had control over the war debate, for the very nature of war in a democracy requires vigorous debate, not lapdog acquiesence.

We're three years and 2,000+ deaths too late, but finally, the best American ideal is emerging. We are keeping in check a rabid White House administration with the checks and balances that have been abused and neglected for those years, but thankfully, have survived.

Now it will be a real debate, abeit a retroactive one, an attempt to fix past wrongs by a radical regime, but it is a healthy sign that a renegade administration is getting some oversight and has had its free rein snatched from it.

Too bad it took too long.

For me, I knew that George W. Bush was not equipped with the gravitas and maturity to lead a nation at war when he said, "Bring 'em on!" Those three words revealed a terrific insecurity and carelessness that puts the lives of his countrymen in danger. Since then, millions of others have caught on, and we see ... finally... belatedly, democracy at work.