The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

Interesting title with an interesting view - mine, on what life will be like beyond President George W. Bush. Indulge me a tad and forgive the fact please, that I am going to give you pure LaylaElizabethology - but it is good to hear new views - even the ones we may not agree with.

Today I took a cab with my husband to his doctor’s office. Our cabby decided to stay and wait for us. The fellow was friendly and engaging - he was also a conspiracy theory believer, but then why not? He is a Washingtonian so it just comes natural for them to have such far fetched views.

Listening to him on the way to the pharmacy as we drove down the Beltway it occurred to me that this was really a very nice man - a good man - someone I would be glad and proud to call my neighbor.

Lightening struck me at that moment as I was thunderstruck by the realization that other than name calling and hate mongering between the left and right, though so antiquated and outdated as it is referred to still as such-we just are truly not so different.

We all want the same things at the end of the day - believe it or not. Our cabby sounded like you or me. He wanted to be safe and wished to not have to worry about our next inevitable terror attack. That perhaps through Homeland Security and our diligence as responsible citizens we might thwart a would be attack - just as was done recently in the United Kingdom.

What was striking however, is the disdain for Bush. Sadly after seven years of Bush I could relate to how he was feeling because I also felt some of that disdain - on a much smaller scale - but still disdain nonetheless. Bush let so many people down.

It is sad that when the world looks to the United States these days it perceives us as the fore brooding spirit. Unlike Bush’s predecessor Ronald Reagan, Bush does not bring light to the darkness or positives to the negatives. Instead of being a beacon of light for the American people as Reagan once was - Bush has all but become a dying ember.

Looking beyond Bush I am not sure what I envision. I am not ready for a Democrat to replace a Republican - even a failing Republican at that. The Democratic version of the war on terror is more like the soap opera, “Days of Our Lives” - you won’t know one day from the next - the days just run all together. That blur and lack of vision is scary, and rightly so. No one should settle for less than some 60% vision and 40% honesty. The two combined would be even better, but even this is appearing to be far in the distance.

Truly I envision an end within the next three years to the ongoing Iraq debacle. I was for the war on terror - I am still for the war on terror, but I can no longer support fighting in Iraq when the government there is doing so little to help itself. The Iraqi’s themselves are not respecting our troops and continue trading in the troops to al-Qaeda the way the West trades in its cattle.

I said recently that this is the right war, but in the wrong place. A reader asked me what would have been the right place? Honestly, I can say Afghanistan - beyond that I lose sight of the Iraq the President envisioned and elaborated upon to the American people. It does not exist and may never come into fruition. I am not saying Bush lied - but I do say he just did not tell the whole truth.

Time will tell us in the coming years how President Bush is judged by history. As for right now - I am really looking forward to beyond Bush - there must be light at the end of this tunnel for the American peoples sake.

Yes, beyond Bush, I like that.