"Leave my son alone!"

You'd think the above Title for this rant came from some middle America father who's son just got back from Iraq.. Or maybe it's some mother who is defending their son in the press from an unwarranted criminal charge..

Or in this case, it comes from an ex-President, speaking about his son - also a President who simply can't seem to grasp the idea that the war in Iraq was not the right answer.. It was never the right idea in the first place!! So when Bush 41 stands up to defend his son's foreign policy, it really makes Bush 43 look worse than he ever did before.. It makes him look week, incompetent and unable to defend himself..

The bad thing is: Bush 43 is weak.. Bush 43 is incompetent.. And given every possible opportunity to defend himself, he simply doesn't get the American mentality behind the war.. When the justifications for the continued war in Iraq, Bush floundered and squandered in so many ways -- it's a miracle things have been held together as long as they have already..

It's no wonder that he wants to hand this cluster over to "the next guy" so that he can dust off his jacket and continue writing the legacy he wants so that he gets painted in the most favorable light he can.. After all, when you fail so miserably in a war and by watching the country crumble with a heavily flawed economic policy the next "conflict" to be aware of is the one that's going to write about your Presidency..

So when Bush 41 stands before an audience and adamantly defends his son's myopic, distorted vision of Iraq -- I'm reminded that Saddam was not the only mad man of the world.. And if Bush 41 cared to learn the rest of the world's most atrocious leaders of the world -- he wouldn't have to play the Saddam card.. So as much as I'd like to back off and cut his son some slack -- I look at the photos of Bush's tour of a recovery unit and I shake my head..

Because there never was a viable acceptable mission that would placate the American thirst for finding those responsible for 9/11 -- only to find that Bush 43's acceptable parameters for securing Iraq had: a.) no WMD, b.) no sign of Al Qaeda, c.) no link to 9/11 (to the degree of any other middle eastern country), d.) a blow hard of a leader who liked to kill his own people -- a bad guy, true -- not unlike the slaughter happening in most of Africa or the continued purges that happen in other places like Haiti..

So - don't think that just because you can play the "Saddam is a bad guy" card when that simply doesn't apply in the grand scheme of things.. There's a lot of bad guys in the world -- and some of them a whole lot meaner and a whole lot more dangerous than Saddam could be..

Sorry - I won't leave your son alone, Mr. Bush Sr.. Not when there are over 76k Iraqi reported deaths and over 3,800 American lives -- I don't think I will ease up..