Bush as Don Quixote

Bush thinks no one can stop him and virtually dares the opposition to end his prosecution of the war. So now what? Unfortunately we knighted him (made him a king, some would say) by letting him abrogate the War Powers Act, spy on us, torture our enemies, wreck the army, assume for the presidency any power he deemed necessary. We permit him to continue playing Don Quixote, never to show public doubt or contrition since the knightly path of righteousness is clear. He has paid no price, yet, nor has Congress really challenged him. Neither have the gods, yet.

If the Greeks taught us anything, it is the concept of just retribution. Whether the president’s exaggerated behavior is rooted in psychopathology, religious belief or an almost total ignorance of history makes no difference. If you believe at all in the concept of hubris, this man is clearly riding for a fall.

How will it come and in what form? The great Cervantes may provide a clue.

“You should know, Sancho my friend,” responded Don Quixote, “that the lives of knights errant are subject to a thousand dangers and disasters, and by the same token they are just as likely to become kings and emperors at any moment, as demonstrated by the experience of many different and diverse knights whose histories I know thoroughly and completely. And I could tell you now, if the pain I feel would allow, of some who, by the sheer valor of their mighty arm, have risen to the high estates I have mentioned to you, and yet, both before and afterward, these same knights have borne all manner of calamities and miseries. . . . And there is even a little-known author, but a very creditable one, who says that in a certain castle the Knight of Phoebus was caught in a certain trapdoor that opened beneath his feet, and he fell and found himself in a deep pit under the earth, tied hand and foot, and there he was given one of those things called an enema, composed of melted snow and sand, which almost killed him, and if he had not been helped in those dire straits by a wise man who was a great friend of his, things would have gone very badly for the poor knight.”*

Well, if the trapdoor opened for Saddam and his henchmen, perhaps it’s only fitting that it open for George W. One thing we can say for sure: the wise man won’t be Dick Cheney. He should be next in line for the snow-and-sand enema.

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*Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, tr. Edith Grossman, New York: 2005, pp. 106-107. It’s interesting that Google provides some 95,200 entries comparing/associating George W. to Don Quixote.