Failure™ Magazine

Failure of the Year 2005

George W. Bush.

Written by Jason Zasky   Filed under History

Meanwhile, the list of sub-failures concerning Iraq is too long to even begin to address in a single article. Many of the problems relate back to the fact that the Administration deliberately ignored advice to plan for post-war Iraq (which explains why the nebulous “Plan for Victory” came several years after “Mission Accomplished”). We’ll see where things “stand” in two years, but a stable democratic government in Iraq won’t be a part of the picture. We don’t even have that in America anymore. For every step Iraq takes toward democracy, the United States takes a step towards theocracy.

It’s worth noting, however, that Bush could have come through this year looking a lot worse. But a generally inattentive and attention-deficit prone American public—not to mention that the fact that most of the mainstream media is controlled by corporate America—saves him from further indignity. Moreover, there have been so many failures on his watch that media coverage of each individual mistake/scandal/embarrassment is almost always superficial and short-lived. Even if the media wanted to do its job, it would not be capable of focusing on six or eight or ten or twenty failures at a time. As a result, Bush gets off easy on each individual issue.

Unfortunately, the outlook for 2006 doesn’t look any better. The United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq and all we have to show for it is an open-ended debacle—with no end in sight and no identifiable plan for winning the peace. Moreover, there’s little chance that Bush will ever recover his credibility. Some commentators have gone so far as to call him a prisoner in the White House. In fact, he can no longer appear in public unless his audience is pre-screened to insure that no one except his most devoted supporters get within shouting distance.

In closing we’d like to send a message to the President. The majority of the country may doubt you and your policies, but we still have a place in our hearts for you here at Failure. As long as you stubbornly insist on “staying the course”—a course that forces Americans to think about failure on a daily basis—we’ll still love you.

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