A new biography of George H.W. Bush is getting a lot of attention, mostly because of Bush’s criticism of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. But there’s another revelation from Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush that is considerably more important and far-reaching.
Bush, according to the account in the New York Times, “suffered from a post-victory despondency after the Persian Gulf war of 1991 — a ‘letdown’ over no longer being involved in such a huge endeavor.”
“On March 13, 1991, just two weeks after Iraq capitulated in the gulf war, Mr. Bush fantasized in his diary about calling it quits after a single term,” the Times reported.
Quoting from Bush’s diary: “Maybe it’s the letdown after the day-to-day” 5 a.m. calls “to the Situation Room; conferences every single day with Defense and State; moving things, nudging things, worrying about things, phone calls to foreign leaders, trying to keep things moving forward, managing a massive project. Now it’s different, sniping, carping, bitching, predictable editorial complaints.”
That’s right: Bush was so bored without a war to fight that he considered retiring rather than slog through another dreary day of being President of the United States.
What’s even more important, and even more frightening, is that it’s not just Bush. It’s most of official Washington, D.C. that finds peace unbearably dull, and war the only thing that lends zest to their gray lives. In August 1990, as the mobilization for the Gulf War began, R.W. Apple Jr. wrote in the New York Times:
The obituaries were a bit premature.
There is still one superpower in the world, and it is the United States. … Washington is not the backwater that it seemed to some when the action was all in the streets of Prague or at the Berlin wall. …
In a hot, humid month when much of Washington is on vacation, there is a rush of excitement in the air here. In news bureaus and Pentagon offices, dining rooms and lobbyists’ hangouts, the fever is back — the heavy speculation, the avid gossip, the gung-ho, here’s-where-it’s-happening spirit, that marks the city when it grapples with great events.
”These days, conversations are huddled,” said Stan Bromley, the manager of the Four Seasons Hotel, where King Hussein of Jordan stayed. ”People are leaning closer together. It’s serious business.”
And this goes for the British political world too. Lance Price, Tony Blair’s deputy communications minster, wrote in a memoir that Blair was stimulated by killing Iraqis, in Blair’s case in Operation Desert Fox in 1998:
“I couldn’t help feeling TB was rather relishing his first blooding as PM, sending the boys into action. Despite all the necessary stuff about taking action ‘with a heavy heart,’ I think he feels it is part of his coming of age as a leader.”
David Cameron’s government was unhappy enough about this truth leaking out that when Price’s book was published in 2013 it forced him to rewrite this passage.
It’s all just further proof that Adam Smith was right was he wrote this in The Wealth of Nations 239 years ago:
In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies. … They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and national glory from a longer continuance of the war.
Regular people hate war, because they pay the price. But powerful people love it. That’s why there’s so much.
H was a good president and even greater American. When the war started he was dealing with a re election bid when the economy was in the start of a recession. “Read my lips.” The war starts and his ratings become very positive. When the war ended the country was dealing again with a recession and his poll numbers went back to being negative.
Justice is coming for the evildoers!
robertsrevolution.net
I’m no great fan of the first Bush, but I think this criticism is a bit exaggerated and perhaps also misplaced.
On the exaggeration part, it’s certainly not uncommon for anyone, even a president, to experience a come-down of sorts after a very intense period of work. I guess the true frustration is that politicians rarely seem to put the same sort of energy into domestic challenges, but I don’t really find Bush’s comment here especially problematic.
On the misplaced part – actually hearing that the Executive buried itself in the planning for Iraq War 1, working all hours to do it right… Good. They should. Of the many, many criticisms of Iraq War 2, the completely insouciant attitude towards the post-Saddam era, the total lack of planning, spoke to a heinous dereliction of duty. It was a goddamned game to them, they were never invested in worrying about the consequences of their actions, it was all criminally unprofessional. I don’t think that charge though can be leveled against the first Bush team.
PTSD?
Speaking as someone with a rather frigging complex and harsh case of PTSD, I have to say that’s about as insulting as it gets to every last person that has actually ever gone through trauma (complex or otherwise). Reads more like Hare’s Checklist for Sociopathy or at least a pretty massive axis 2 personality disorder (NPD, APD). Or do you want to count him reading story books to children when he found out 9/11 was occurring a personal trauma deserving of a PTSD diagnosis about a decade and a half later — if so I don’t think it’d bore him. Just FYI. Sorry, I’m sure it was just sarcasm — just got me a bit irked, because this seems to be what we are letting politicians get away with — well, that and we think ‘Scandal’ is a good show (about perhaps the most corrupt fake American government ever to exist on fictionalized TV).
Maybe Bush needs to go and I dunno, serve his country like he should have not avoided in the first place (never mind the time and place) and get a real look at what it’s like to be traumatized by the things politicians are sending other people and their families in to ‘fight’?
Oops, messed that up a bit. That’s H.W., not Junior. Even worse — he didn’t even experience anything REMOTELY traumatizing to blame — not even a story book twin towers guiltfest. What I get for being irritated at this piece and not reading it fully.
Politics and the satellite industries are chock-full of greedy, narcissistic adrenaline junkies. If we took the “fun” out of it, who would we be left with? I would love to see that experiment conducted.
I said the same things about Cocaine – some of the most successful people have gotten out of bed and been dynamic and creative and driven just by some stupid powder they honk up the nose.
Rock stars, stock market traders, movie makers, fashion designers, TV show hosts, architects, businessmen, playboys, all the slutty golddiggers and party girls that keep them in a whirl, even Mayors of Toronto and elswhere:
SNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!
Where would we be without it? I ask sincerely as Mexico and Columbia would like to know.
It’s postpartum depression. You push and you push to give birth to a healthy bouncing baby war, and then its over…
This is a ridiculous article. Jon Schwarz singles out governmental leadership possessing a lust for war as though that hasn’t been the case for humanity as a whole through it’s entire existence. Bravo, Jon. Your grasp of the obvious is second to none. Powerful people thrive on competition…but the massed don’t? Why did Gladiators exist? Why did American civilians kill natives in the old west? Why do men and women kill each other in the streets? Why do sporting events exist? And you point the finger at leadership…you should be standing in a mirror and pointing the finger at yourself. All of us should. We are the source of our own destruction.
Bush is human. We are all human. Therefore we can’t criticize Bush.
You nailed it, Sam.
It’s not only Bush. It’s the mindset of modern civilization’s leaders. A great example would be:
It’s pouring rain outside. Suddenly a leak explodes in a torrent of water flooding into your living room. During the course of the following whatever period of time you make repairs, perhaps too hastily…
Once done you sit back and relax. It never occurs to you that during this time of “peace”, you could be making foundational repairs that have long been overdue in order to make “life” more enjoyable for all who reside in your “home”.
Instead you become bored missing the adrenaline rush you felt, hammer-in-hand, while you made combat with Mother Nature’s best.
Meanwhile, the foundation continues to crumble from lack of attention, and the hasty roof repairs do little to prevent another crisis down the road…
Clearly one must be a little insane to even consider wanting to hold such power. At the very least history shows only sociopaths and psychopaths ever end up doing so. With very, very few exceptions.
The Bushes are vampires with an insatiable thirst for war spilled blood.
We Americans do not even have the collective integrity to publicly shun the pro-war politicians who sent so many of our fellow citizens to die in unprovoked wars of aggression.
http://www.ivaw.org
.
Good for you, Jay.
War has always been about profit, usually for the elites of societies. Every war is a struggle over access to assets no matter how it is wrapped up, it asserts who is boss and who should shut the fuck up and lay down submissive (often permanently, stretched out long six feet under).
There is no excuse for it, even a defensive war is a failure of diplomacy and suitable counter-measures. We have given too much power to our elites, it has made them profoundly intoxicated with the poison of power and now they think they can have it all.
Sam Harris loves bleating on about the Islamic Death Cult and how profoundly noble and decent and righteous America is in waging its wars against such uncouth and indoctrinally dangerous peoples. What an apologistic, ignorant silly little cunt of a man he is.
There you go, Sam, meet the War Pigs. Go fight and die for them in some Muslim-murdering frenzy of hatred and we will tell your folks you died a Patriot.
A friend of mine that served in Northern Ireland told me that he used to fantasise about shooting innocent people as he laid, bored stupid, on a concrete floor at a road block and that firing heavy machine guns always gave him a hard-on, so imagine what firing nukes and waging a never-ending war of murderous insanity and pillaging must be like……………………. Or, maybe, go ask the Prez! He’s so nice, he’s half black!
Oh my God America! Are you just realising these crazy fuckers ENJOY this shit?
Generals gathered in their masses,
Just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction,
Sorcerer of death’s construction.
In the fields the bodies burning,
As the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind,
Poisoning their brainwashed minds.
Oh lord yeah!
Politicians hide themselves away,
They only started the war.
Why should they go out to fight,
They leave that role to the poor.*
Yeah!
Time will tell on their power mind,
Making war just for FUN.
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
Wait till their judgement day comes.
Yeah!
Now in darkness world stops turning,
Ashes where the bodies burning.
No more war pigs have the power,
Hand of God has struck the hour.
Day of judgement God is calling,
On their knees the war pig’s crawling.
Begging mercy for their sins,
Satan laughing spreads his wings.
Oh lord yeah!
You revolting, ignorant fucking people.
March 13? I don’t get it all but it seemed every line was hidden message secret just like the CIA does. Good for you now back to work.
This, from the Guardian’s latest story on HW’s memoir:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/05/george-bush-sr-book-reveals-a-more-dangerous-dick-cheney-than-anyone-knew
Speaking of Seymour Hersh, I’m disappointed that his supposed bombshell on the OBL raid hasn’t received some follow-up reporting.
The wealthy will have reason for woe soon enough. The world has seen the Rapture of the Jews, aka the Holocaust, and the crossbow that can strike the whole world. Michael got on his horse and we saw that Crime is Law: the first seal, broken. Just ten years ago some still believed there was a difference between War and Peace, but Gabriel pretty well did for that one. Next up must be that Poverty is Wealth, or Feast is Famine. It doesn’t make sense to the degree the seal is intact, but the cracks are already showing. We see obesity as a disease of the poor … we realize the illusory nature of wealth that is made by deciding “Bitcoins” are a thing or that the “Federal Reserve” can loan out free money to bankers. We go to the market and people are spending money, but they don’t go away owning things … just licenses to things that remain under control of somebody else. Who envies the rich man who has ADT “Always There” to spy on him? The Winston Smiths of the world already envy the proles. But all this is just prelude… the gates of understanding will open. Soon.
But how is sickness health? How is health sickness? We have a way to go before we understand them all. And when we do, we may wish we hadn’t, because I do fear the Revelation is for the damned.
Idiot. They do this for their god, you think another god will bring justice. How about you all wake up, realise there is no fucking god, just greedy and lazy people making their short existences as cozy as possible by wiping their arses on the poor. That is the American Dream, and now it is your Global Dream your war machine is marching to ensure its off-shore businesses pay up, because back home is bankrupt and desolate and nearing revolution.
You all say how AMAZING your founding fathers’ foresight was, but it is all based on a lie and what made them revolt against their British rulers is what they now seek to inflict on the rest of the world – taxes for the imperial masters, consent and obedience or assassination, and a recognition of US superiority over all races.
The ultimate Fascists are here to take whatever they will and no god or demon will stand in their way, just us, people, so shut your fucking idiot talk of Armageddon and the Apocalypse up, because you don’t even fucking understand what shit you are talking.
Thanks for the article, Jon. Entertainment value being assigned to war is nothing new, though. As abhorrent as that concept is, Fox news and CNN gleefully supported our wars for as long as there was any entertainment value left. It’s way past time for waging peace. Speak up.
@jgreen7801-Good to see you back!
Jon – having just read the NYT article before coming across your article really shows how little you add to informed discussion. You are a blogger in the most derogatory sense. You take Jon Meacham’s work and repackage them to fit your political needs and predetermined bias.
Quoting from Bush’s diary: “Maybe it’s the letdown after the day-to-day” 5 a.m. calls “to the Situation Room; conferences every single day with Defense and State; moving things, nudging things, worrying about things, phone calls to foreign leaders, trying to keep things moving forward, managing a massive project. Now it’s different, sniping, carping, bitching, predictable editorial complaints.”
You take the above quote and selectively focus on its occurrence after the War as proof that he was only motivated by war but then skip the part about the “sniping, carping, bitching.” You dumbed the discussion down Jon. Maybe is is just speaking to the focus brought with the War and how it changed after. He didn’t say he was bored but that he had to deal with the bureaucracy. At least he is honest, these were audio diaries after all.
I wonder if Jon Meacham reaches a similar conclusion as your knee-jerk one. Did you ask Mr. Meacham if that was his conclusion? Of course you didn’t, you lazy bum. But gotta get those page views right!?
You are an idiot who can’t read between the lines. The most important stuff is always what’s implied rather than what’s written for dumb folks like you to read and gloat over. Now stop reading and enjoy the white space in between the lines.
Strong start to an retort!!
What’s “implied” and “between the lines” is the lifeblood of crappy bloggers. It’s what enables them to take pieces of other peoples’ quotes/comments/analysis and mold and contort them to their own liking, divert traffic to their site without adding discernible value, and then not having any accountability for being factually accurate. Trot out a cute little hyperbolic title and your work is done. Minimal mental effort expended. Paycheck earned, bitches!
At least some of the bloggers who do this have an excuse: lack of resources, access, and credibility. Maybe I’m wrong but TI seems to possess these, yet still allows such throwaway, blogspam articles to pollute its site. First Ken Silverstein, now Shwarz.
Nate, you are wasting your time writing a response to that fool:-)
Nate is actually wasting his time hanging around here hoping that some day Mr Greenwald will reveal the total number of documents that Mr Snowden has handed over to him. Meanwhile, to convince his employers that his quest for the elusive number is still on, he will keep passing expert comments and unsolicited judgements on stuff that he knows very little about.
Please continue to encourage him and keep him awake lest he dozes off.
Wow, that came out of left field. I must have struck a chord when I asked that question as its been lingering in the back of your mind all this time! You’re right though, one day we’ll find out how many documents he took – likely if and when he returns to the U.S. to face trial, because the prosecutors may use that information to paint him as reckless in his theft of the documents.
But your mockery falls flat on its face with a resounding splat because my pursuit of that answer was already vindicated months ago when John Oliver asked Snowden if he read every single document he took and Snowden admitted he had not. He was merely familiar with them. That line of questioning was the exact path I was aiming for and John Oliver validated it in an impactful manner — the Guardian summarized it as “John Oliver presses Edward Snowden on whether he read all leaked NSA material. HBO host posts uncomfortable questions to NSA whistleblower in interview in Moscow.” Who looks stupid now, myself or you and your cadre of loyalists claiming I was asking an irrelevant question? Eat crow and enjoy it.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/06/edward-snowden-john-oliver-last-week-tonight-nsa-leaked-documents
“Unsolicited judgments”? You realize that comment sections are established to gain feedback and promote conversation right? How would a solicited judgment work – would Jon have to end every article with “now readers, please critique my post!”
If I’m the one wasting my time hanging around here, then what does that say about you engaging me in conversation? You perceive me as some kind of threat. Do I challenge your worldview!?
“You take the above quote and selectively focus on its occurrence after the War as proof that he was only motivated by war but then skip the part about the ‘sniping, carping, bitching.’ …He didn’t say he was bored but that he had to deal with the bureaucracy. ”
Bush wrote about the “letdown” of not fighting a war anymore, and said he no longer had the same “drive” and “energy” to be president. That is the self-description of someone who is bored by peace.
And dealing with “sniping, carping, bitching” is probably the key skill of any leader. If you don’t want to do that, you don’t want to be president.
These are diary entries for chrissakes. Haven’t you ever had days where you are fet up or sick and tired of something!? for all we know, he overcame this despondency in the next day/month/week’s diary entry. But you clearly don’t give a damn because such nuance compromises your throwaway article. If you did care or believe his statement had meaningful ramifications, you’d do some actual due diligence to support your assertion.
Clickbait is All this is. I hope your analytics system you all are rolling out doesnt reward this.
Jon, I won’t go so far as Nate to disparage your article, but I think the interpretation of the quote is a bit ungenerous. I don’t doubt that Bush recognized the difference in adrenaline between the war handling and the daily details of governing. But I also see someone who is comparing a time of action and accomplishment and a time of inaction, gridlock, and just “bitching.”
That feels like a genuine reaction to a situation, and one that isn’t necessarily fueled by a lust for war and destruction. I do think your framing of the comment is less than generous and focuses on only one possible aspect. I won’t speculate on your reasons for that, nor would I say that it is a completely unreasonable interpretation. But still.
Good response. Basically a more civil (and admittedly better articulated) version of mine, but with a similar conclusion: It is an absolutely cynical interpretation of Bush’s quote.
But stick around these parts a little longer. This article isn’t an anomaly but representative of the norm.
Actually, Jon, I think you misrepresent Bush. Later in the article you link to, the writer refers to Bush’s criticism of Dick Cheney criticizing him for “His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East.”
That doesn’t sound like a guy who loves war for the sake of war. I think it is clear that Bush was comparing a sense of accomplishment to the frustrations he felt trying to get anything substantive done later.
I wasn’t a Bush 41 fan, but he is far more balanced and nuanced that his son. Far more intelligent, too. That isn’t to say he wasn’t a flawed leader. He was the head of the CIA for a time, so he is no saint. Still, to use that diary entry to paint him as some thrill-seeking war monger when the record tells a different story isn’t the best use of your skills or platform.
It pains me to agree with Nate on this one, but this isn’t good journalism or even good analysis.
Quoting from Nate’s important notes on Bush’s diary and Jon Schwarz’ post:
No, you “dumbed down the discussion,” Nate, by acting as if Bush was a regular citizen writing or speaking a diary entry about the let down of after, say, training for and then running a marathon race. He wasn’t. He was, as he said, playing the roll of Commander-In- Chief, which entailed talking with a bunch of ego bloated, self-important cabinet members and military elites, some of whom wore chest plates obscenely decorated with a pile of colorful medals.
You try so hard with your critiques to be relevant that it must be a let down to you when you look back each time and see that, each time, you’re an embarrassment to yourself. So I guess maybe you have some clue about how Bush might have felt when all of the fun was over.
Kitt with some Freudian projection.
If George HW Bush wanted to write a B.S. diary where he portrayed himself as the perfect soldier that was stoic as George Washington, he surely could have. He apparently treated it with some degree of self-honesty.
You admit it yourself, acknowledging that he deals with a “bunch of ego bloated, self-important cabinet members and military elites, some of whom wore chest plates obscenely decorated with a pile of colorful medals.” So is it really surprising that he’d be frustrated? It isn’t about being a civilian, it’s about being human. You may think you could understand being in such a situation but you don’t. None of us do.
I’d think you’d be more sympathetic Kitt, since you are seemingly so easily provoked.
That assessment and dramatic and childish conclusion of yours sums you up, Nate. You think that the ego bloated cabinet members, the POTUS, the Pentagon lackeys, the Generals with the chest full of medals, and those same generals and others affiliated with them, who appear on TV shows all over cable and network — well and highly paid by the Pentagon — to lie incessantly in order to finance more and more wars, are doing special work that us “little people” just don’t understand and can’t possibly ever comprehend. I know you have surely read the infamous quote linked here: Hermann Goering’s Quote on War and the People. The propaganda performed by the men and women you are in awe of just ain’t all that sophisticated and preciousness, Nate. It’s easy for a bunch of scoundrels to fool you into thinking they are doing important work so that you’ll stand in awe of them and back them spending tons of money on atrocities. And then, after it has all been said and done you’ll be found posting pitiful conclusions, such as the one I’ve quoted at top of this comment, about how special those people are.
Behind TV analysts, The Pentagon’s hidden hand
…And here comes Kitt driving the truckload of straw; time to build! I think my assertion that dealing with the day-to-day activities of the Office of the President as something that most cannot imagine is not very controversial, but have fun conversing with your straw-man.
Let’s talk about who is really propagandized here. I criticize TI and its authors, no doubt about it. I have also praised what I perceived as good work.
I also scrutinize lots of other people and organizations, as I work in a profession that critiques programs and processes (auditing/accounting). You – at least in the context of these forums – are essentially a company-man. A defender of all things TI. A part of a personality cult. An attendee of the church of Glenn. You seemingly go out of your way to attempt to marginalize my posts, not with substantive and rational discussions but with insults and disingenuous argument.
I don’t see you challenge anybody except those who themselves challenged your masters. Yet you have the nerve to claim that it is I who is being manipulated and propagandized!? Kitt, you need to take a healthy look in the mirror.
Your comment was non sequitur and had nothing to do with what I’ve been writing in response to what you have written; especially your childish line about the people in power being so special that none of us can imagine what they must go through. Your same old detour about Glenn is as old as dirt. Sorry I couldn’t come up with a better cliche to describe it, but responding to you is a waste of whatever time I spend doing it, so I didn’t want to bother digging for something more original, and the ‘dirt’ cliche covers it well enough anyway.
It’s such a waste of time that you sniff out my posts like a blood hound and respond to damn near every one?
Sure Kitt, keep telling yourself you don’t care. You so obviously do.
I agree with you 100 %
You are really close to the top in my list of favorite journalists. The article on IBM and drones was also brilliant. May the intercept live long.
I get this, playing the excellent old computer game ‘Civilization Three Play The World’. I can win through a diplomatic or cultural victory, but it is dull as death. Alternatively I can nuke all my enemies to win, and it removes a bit of aggression.
Of course I always hoped ‘the leader of the free world’ would have a bit more sense and patience dealing with the real world than me game playing out of boredom, so I’m more disappointed than surprised. This game has obviously been a complete disaster so can we just reload back to say, the start of Bush the Elders reign?
I think this is an unnecessary spin on a situation meant to embarrass an old man – the type that Fox News people would be proud of. Yes, peace is boring for any person who has engaged in combat. Ask any person in the military how they feel when they have to spend weeks together not having killed a single Afghan or Iraqi or tortured a few Pakis just for the heck of it. Such boring stuff can be better delegated to someone like President Clinton who has a knack for creating entertainment for himself and his interns in the public spaces of the most guarded residence, and who is salivating while contemplating an encore soon.
Your’s is an odd take on Bush Sr.’s reaction. There was a lot a pressure for 41 to expand the Persian Gulf War and take out Saddam. He decided against that. Wish numbers 43 and 44 would have done the same.
At least Sr. wasn’t bored enough with peace to continue that war for a decade and a half (and counting).