"I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind."
~President George W. Bush on "Meet the Press," Feb. 8, 2004
In the first installment of Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather," the Corleone family is in disarray.
Vito Corleone, the patriarch of the New York mob family, is generally reluctant to use violence unless it's absolutely necessary.
But after he is gunned down, his family is left with a choice as to how to avenge the tragic violence perpetrated against them.
Tom Hagen, the family's consigliore, advocates a non-violent approach, which puts him at odds with Vito's brash and temperamental son, Sonny.
Their conflict peaks during a heated argument in which Sonny laments the fact he doesn't have a "wartime consigliore," instead of Tom, to help him carry out the murder of the Corleone family's enemies.
The conflict between hawks and doves within the Corleone family is a drama re-enacted in the White House since George W. Bush took office, and as everyone knows, the hawks won.
After the tragedy of Sept. 11, our country had a choice to either respond with violence or to neutralize potential threats more peacefully. Colin Powell is the supposed Tom Hagen-like dove of the administration, while just about everyone else is Sonny Corleone.
Bush has clearly defined himself as a wartime leader, like Sonny, as his remarks on "Meet the Press" indicate. He has developed a worldview of binary opposition: good versus evil; with us or against us. When Bush faces a potential threat, he deals with it like Sonny Corleone does - "I'm gonna end it by killin' that old bast--d!"
This could turn out to be a great campaign strategy for Bush. If he can fool people into fearing vaguely-defined evils, while at the same time casting himself as the fearless leader unafraid to pull the trigger in defense of America, people may be to afraid to vote for someone else less aggressive.
But while keeping people scared, and therefore less sensitive to reason and rationality while in the voting booth may be a great campaign strategy, it's a terrible way to lead.
A war president acts with might, rather than being guided by what is right, which can lead to disaster.
While a war president's citizens may be too scared not to trust their leader, nobody else in the world is similarly compelled. If the world sees America as a brash and temperamental threat, they will be less likely to co-operate with America's goals abroad and perhaps more likely to launch a pre-emptive attack of their own.
The other problem in acting as a war president - that is, a war president such as Bush, who will exercise our raw military power regardless of international laws or standards - is that you may not always be the strongest mobster in the hood.
Sonny Corleone learns this the hard way. He uses his bullets to solve problems, which works to a point - some enemies are vanquished - but in the end, Sonny is gunned down in the same way in which he executed his enemies.
Sonny doesn't pay attention to the mob prohibitions about inter-family warfare, a strategy that is only temporarily effective. After he sets the example, other mob families are free to act in the same way, and there is nothing to stop them from destroying Sonny. He becomes a victim of his own brutish violence.
When Bush ignores international standards and acts with war on his mind, he makes our nation vulnerable to the same kind of violence and destruction we have perpetrated on the innocent citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan.
When Bush acts as a maverick and disregards accepted standards for what justifies an attack on another country, he leaves the door open for other nations to act in the same way against our country.
Sonny Corleone acts with war on his mind also and ends up a victim of his own violence, and we are in danger of making the same mistake.
