Failure of Leadership -- Not

Noron is pounding on her "failure of leadership" bit to explain Haditha. Well, obviously there is some kind of failure of leadership whenever anything goes wrong in any tiered organization. But "failure of leadership" is too nice a phrase; it lets the "leader" down on a puffy cloud for a soft, soft landing.

It isn't failure of leadership that leads to horrors like Haditha. It's abuse of power. And when I talk about abuse of power in terms of this president and his cohort, I refer to their power over people, the human capital GWBush is willing to spend so freely.

I've thought for years that George W Bush is a sociopath, and my main two reasons for thinking this are 1) he seems to derive pleasure out of other people's pain, and 2) he doesn't seem to have any awareness of other human beings as having any other worthy purpose but to adore George W Bush.

One manifestation of this sociopathology is the way George W Bush treats people who "don't count." Working people? They don't need no stinking living wage or doctors. Democratic voters? Find a way to destroy their votes -- or at least switch their votes from the other guy to a Bush. Soldiers? Lemme play army -- I'll show my dad who's the best!

The Bushes and their courtiers see everyone else the way the pre-revolutionary French court saw everyone else -- perhaps as curiosities, but mostly as sources of revenue and cannon fodder.

The soldiers at Haditha were on their THIRD rotation in a horrific situation for which they were not trained. I don't know what they were or were not guilty of, but I do know this: the man who sent them there is guilty of more.