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Dancing the War Away
By
BOB HERBERT

Watching the inaugural ceremonies yesterday reminded me of the scenes near
the end of "The Godfather" in which a solemn occasion (a baptism in the
movie)
is interspersed with a series of spectacularly violent murders.

Even as President Bush was taking the oath of office and delivering his
Inaugural Address beneath the clear, cold skies of Washington, the news
wires were
churning out stories about the tragic mayhem in Iraq. There is no end in
sight to the carnage, which was unleashed nearly two years ago by President
Bush's
decision to launch this wholly unnecessary war, one of the worst
presidential decisions in American history.

Incredibly, with more than 1,360 American troops dead and more than 10,000
wounded, and with scores of thousands of Iraqis dead and wounded, the
president
never once mentioned the word Iraq in his Inaugural Address. He avoided all
but the most general references to the war. Lyndon Johnson used to agonize
over the war that unraveled his presidency. Mr. Bush, riding the crest of
his re-election wave, seems not to be similarly bothered.

In January 1945, with World War II still raging, Franklin Roosevelt insisted
on a low-key inauguration. Already gravely ill, he began his address by
saying,
"Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, my friends, you will understand and,
I believe, agree with my wish that the form of this inauguration be simple
and its words brief."

Times have changed. President Bush and his equally tone-deaf supporters
spent the past few days partying hard while Americans, Iraqis and others
continued
to suffer and die in the Iraq conflagration. Nothing was too good for the
princes and princesses of the new American plutocracy. Tens of millions of
dollars
were spent on fireworks, cocktail receptions, gala dinners and sumptuous
balls.

Ten thousand people, including the president and Laura Bush, turned out
Wednesday night for the Black Tie and Boots Ball. According to The
Associated Press,
one of the guests, Lorian Sessions of San Antonio, "donned a new pair of
black kangaroo boots, decorated with a white star and embroidery, with an
aqua-colored
mink wrap she bought on sale at Saks."

An article in The Washington Post mentioned a peace activist who complained
that the money lavished on the balls would have been better spent on body
armor
for under-equipped troops in Iraq.

As the well-heeled Bush crowd was laughing and dancing in tuxedos and
designer gowns, the situation in Iraq was deteriorating to new levels of
horror. The
Black Tie and Boots Ball was held on the same day that 26 people were killed
in five powerful car and truck bombs in Baghdad. With the elections just a
week and a half away, American commanders, according to John F. Burns of The
Times, are seeking "to prepare public opinion in Iraq and abroad for one of
the bloodiest chapters in the war so far."

A photo at the end of Mr. Burns's article showed an Iraqi National Guard
member carrying the remains of a suicide bomber in a garbage bag.

The disconnect between the over-the-top celebrations in Washington and the
hideous reality of Iraq does not in any way surprise me. It's exactly what
we
should expect from the president and his supporters, who seem always to
exist in a fantasy realm far removed from such ugly realities as war and
suffering.
In that realm you can start wars without having to deal with the
consequences of them. You don't even have to pay for them. You can put them
on a credit
card.

People traveling in the real world may see Iraq as a place where bombings,
kidnappings and assassinations are an integral part of daily life; where
police
officers are blown to pieces as they line up for their pay; where innocent
men, women and children are slain by the thousands for no good reason; where
cities like Falluja are leveled in order to save them; where America's
overwhelming superiority in firepower has not been enough to win the war;
and where
the upcoming elections seem very much like a joke since many of the
candidates have to keep their identities secret and the locations of many
polling places
remain undisclosed.

People traveling in the real world may see Iraq that way. But in the
fantasy-laden Bush realm, Iraq is a place where freedom is on the march. So
why not
raise a toast to freedom, and dance the night away.