Reading notes

David Corn, in his post-60 Minutes assessment (aired last Sunday, April 18) of Bob Woodward’s new book, Plan of Attack, reports nearly the same response I had, saying “The Woodward book is not a full-fire blast like Richard Clarke’s book. But it is in several ways more disquieting.”

Indeed. The Administration behavior Woodward reports chills me to the bone.

It’s hard to know what is more disturbing. That George W. Bush misled the public by stating in the months before the Iraq war that he was seriously pursuing a diplomatic resolution when he was not. That he didn’t bother to ask aides to present the case against going to war. That he may have violated the U.S. Constitution by spending hundreds of millions of dollars secretly to prepare for the invasion of Iraq without notifying Congress. That he was misinformed by the CIA director about one of the most critical issues of the day and demanded no accountability. Or that he doesn’t care if he got it wrong on the weapons of mass destruction. …

Bush told Woodward that he remained certain the war had been the right move because he has a “duty to free people.” … This remark — coupled with Bush’s comment that “there is a higher father that I appeal to” — does make it seem that Bush believes he is on a mission from God. That might scare some, but it would not be so problematic if Bush also believed that God expects him to engage in self-examination and critical and honest discourse before mounting an action that claims thousands of lives and if Bush took into this heart the fact that God (assuming God exists) created intellectuals, experts, skeptics and critics as well as cowboys, oil rig workers, and truck drivers (not that any of these folks cannot be fancy-pants eggheads as well).

My study and experience tells me God always expects me to “engage in self-examination and critical and honest discourse,” with him and with others, throughout my Christian walk. That Mr. Bush chooses to “eschew accountability and responsibility,” “is embedded in a world detached from critical or challenging perspectives,” and who is “incapable of self-doubt,” communicates far more than he appears to realize about how his reported inner life diverges his real inner life.