Presidents and Wars

I don't suppose its news that Presidents try to expand powers during wartime. It happened during the Civil War and during WW II. The problem here gets back to the issue of the war itself.

I think most people would readily agree that those wars were both just and unavoidable. While I might not agree with Lincoln's and Roosevelt's attempts to expand the government’s powers against their own citizens, I can at least accept that these events happened in the context of just wars.

The Iraq war is neither just nor unavoidable. In fact it's just the opposite. And, there are specific laws on the books today (created in 1978) that were not available to Lincoln or Roosevelt to allow the government to obtain legal authority to spy on Americans. And yet Bush chose not to use the powers already available to him.

What are we to make of this? I think the only logical conclusion has to be this - President Bush believes he is personally (not the presidency) is above all laws in this country. How else do you explain willfully ignoring laws to gain an objective and instead going well beyond the law to gain the very same objective?

I believe Bush has cast himself as the Messianic figure needed to lead not just this country, but the world toward Christian religious states. If that sounds scary or hyperbolic or just plain silly OK. That's the way it looks to me. I don't doubt that those around him are only too happy to play up this vision Bush has of himself. It furthers their own goals of having power and in some cases trying to remake the world.

This president isn't Lincoln and he isn't Roosevelt. I've tried to find some similarities. Maybe the Eisenhower and his Eisenhouwer Doctrine that referenced the Middle East has somehow been perverted by Bush, and used in his quest (conquest) to bring democracy and Christianity to the region.

Like I said there are Presidents and Wars, but they're not all created equal.