George Bush is starting to remind me of the driver in the stolen vehicle during the later stages of being chased by the cops.

     You have probably seen that situation on television many times. There are lots of cops chasing with their sirens wailing and their lights flashing, but the wayward driver ignores them. One or more of the tires has been punctured; the rubber has shredded off, yet the nut behind the wheel continues driving on the rims. Sometimes, passengers in the vehicle are let out or jump out when it slows down.

     In order to keep going, the driver runs lights, rams other vehicles, and goes the wrong way down one way roads. Eventually the vehicle won’t go any more, and the driver is arrested or takes off on foot.

     These chases always end eventually, but not before a lot of damage is done. The driver is usually discovered to have a history of alcohol or drug abuse. As I said, this reminds me a lot of George Bush.

     Bush stole the bus when he stole the election in 2000. Overwhelmingly, both in the United States and in the world at large, most people want Bush to stop his occupation of Iraq. Bush ignores the flashing lights and sirens. He flouts international laws, trashes treaty obligations and shows total disrespect for human rights.

     The passengers on his war bus have been getting out as the opportunity arises. Even his co-conspirator Tony Blair has recently realized that the ride is heading for a bad ending, and is starting to exit the bus. If Bush continues on his present course, he will soon be alone on the bus.

     So how does George Bush react to this situation? He steps on the gas, with his plan for a “surge.” He is not the first driver to think that he can speed up and outrun the people who want to stop him. But he is certainly the one who is doing the most damage while he wildly careens down the road of war.

     As he continues to drive, however, George Bush is also showing signs he wants to make his vehicle into an even bigger war bus. He has been trying for some time now to build up the case for invading Iran. His thinking appears to be that if he has a bigger war bus with a new mission, it will be harder to stop him. It is self-delusion of course, but these wild drivers have never been known for their rigorous analytical skills.

     The problem is that the war bus in this metaphor is the United States military, and it only responds to one driver, the Commander-in-Chief. The bus will continue on the warpath as long as Bush drives it in that direction, even though the tires are shredded and the wheels are starting to come off. If Bush tells it to bulk up for a detour into Iran, it will do that also, to the best of its ability.

     As a result the war bus will only stop in one of two ways. First, if it is physically incapable of continuing, or second, if the Commander-in-Chief tells it to stop. Neither event is likely to happen in the near future. Unless Congress grows a spine or Bush grows a brain, I suspect that we will be watching this chase, and the resultant carnage, for the rest of the time that Bush remains in office.

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