Bush SO doesn't get it

Frank Ford sent me an article entitled "Bush, the Revolution and the Iraq War: The President Fails American History, Again" and here's how it gets started:

On July 4th, 2007, President Bush compared the U.S. struggle in Iraq with the American Revolution. He reminded his audience of West Virginia Air National Guard personnel and their families that the first July 4th celebration in 1777 took place in the midst of "a bloody and difficult struggle that would not end for six more years before America finally secured her freedom." Although "it is hard [today] to imagine the Revolutionary War coming out any other way," he said, "at the time, America's victory was far from certain." He then turned to the war in Iraq. "You're the successors of those brave men," he told the crowd. "Like those early patriots, you're fighting a new and unprecedented war." He commended them for "showing that the courage which won our independence more than two centuries ago is alive and well here in West Virginia."

What makes the American Revolution an inspirational example to people everywhere is that the first Americans were, like the Iraqis today, trying to end an occupation. Bush never got it, even though he pointed out that in 1777 "we were a small band of freedom-loving patriots taking on the most powerful empire in the world." Today it is the Iraqis who are "taking on the most powerful empire in the world" and our own military that constitutes the occupation. This is the stark and obvious analogy between the American Revolution and the Iraq occupation and it does not bode well for U.S. military success.

The American Revolution jettisoned foreign rule and subjection to the English throne. It should not be surprising to Americans that other peoples want to free themselves from occupation and foreign rule. Being a colony and suffering foreign troops on our soil infuriated our ancestors and would infuriate most of us today.

Why is this so hard to get? It's the utter stupidity of the war mongers that baffles me.