If You Missed It - 2006 Year In Review

IF YOU MISSED IT

The international news story of the year was, without a doubt, the return of the Axis of Evil. In spite of what President Bush says about "all options" being on the table, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that if the U.S. military doesn't have the personnel and/or the political will to secure Iraq, a ground invasion in Iran or North Korea is extremely unlikely.

Kim Jong Il knows it. That's the only reason he would ever have the guts to test a long-range missile in July then, despite the risk of U.N. sanctions, follow it up with a test of a nuclear weapon in October. And for all his cowboy tough-guy talk, President Bush's response was to tell Kim Jong Il that he'd better not transfer any nuclear technology to Iran or Syria.

The mullahs who run Iran know it. That's the reason they are hell-bent on developing nuclear technology. Seeing the difference between the Bush Administration's Iraq policy and its North Korea policy, they know that a nuclear weapon basically functions as invasion insurance. It's so important that it has beoome an issue of national pride. And the Bush Administration still can't get the United Nations to agree on sanctions. Mainly because Iran has kept the U.N.'s focus in other places by having its guerilla wings, Hezbollah, start a war with Israel.

The big domestic news story of the year was that George W. Bush lost. He lost his Vice President - who shot a man in the face and didn't bother to inform his boss. He lost his party - when Republican candidates for Congress cancelled campaign events with him. He lost Congress - when voters sent pink slips to the Republicans in power and gave the reins to the Democrats. He lost the Pentagon - when he fired Secretary of Defense and architect of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld (ironically, if he had fired Rumsfeld a few weeks earlier, he may not have lost Congress). And, finally, he lost his mind - when, in a press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in December, he said, "historians will look back and say, how come (they) couldn't see the threat?" As if he is the only person on Earth who knows what to do. "Nobody else sees it except me" is the kind of thing that crazy people say. And if that's not enough evidence, let's not forget that this is the same man who told a group of Republicans, "I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me." Of course, Barney is his dog.

SO IF YOU MISSED IT:
2006 was the year that our cowboy President, George W. Bush's, proverbial chickens came home to roost. His Iraq policy tied his hands internationally in our dealings with North Korea and Iran (so much for the Axis of Evil) and fractured his Cabinet, compromised his legacy, cost his party control of Congress and pushed it to the brink of irrelvance. 2006 was the year George W. Bush showed the world what he's made of - and it wasn't much.