This is Leadership?
In their second debate, John Kerry called President Bush -- appropriately -- "Orwellian." He referred then to the cheery names the Bush administration has given its regressive environmental policies: The Clean Skies bill excludes the biggest greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, and has led to dirtier skies; the Healthy Forest Initiative actually injured forests by opening them up to logging. The truth is, unfortunately, that mirrors of "1984" don't end with environmental policy: Bush and company relied on Orwellian logic in making a case for the Iraq war. In short, the White House knowingly put the American homeland and its citizens in danger in order to build support for the war, relying on logic similar to that the government in "1984" used to justify bombing its own citizens. The White House displayed unequivocally that it placed the war in Iraq as a higher priority than American civilian lives--not just U.S. Army or military lives. Bush was willing to let people like you and I die en masse for the chance to oust Saddam, all in the name of protecting us.