The Cincinnati Story

9 October 2002

On 7 October the president went to Cincinnati. He said "We did not ask for this present challenge, but we accept it" and asked Congress to bless a preemptive war.

Why did he go to the American city named after a Roman farmer and general, Lucius Cincinnatus? The media says that he went there because it represents the heartland. God love Ohio, but come on, nobody goes to Cincinnati for this kind of thing.

The President, or his advisors, may have had another reason.

Cincinnati's namesake comes with a great story. 2500 years ago, like George Bush, Cincinnatus was presented a challenge he didn't ask for. In 456 BC, the Roman senate came to this retired general working his fields near the Tiber River. They asked his advice and leadership in the face of almost certain destruction of Rome by enemies (in this case, tribes of Aequians). The Senate of the Republic begged Cincinnatus to become a dictator. Cincinnatus reluctantly accepted this charge, turned back the Aequians in 16 days, saved Rome, and then famously handed power back to the people.

But this is where I get confused. Like Cincinnatus, Bush technically didn't ask for this present challenge. But unlike Cincinnatus, Bush and his advisors have for many months beat war drums, magnified threats, exaggerated intelligence, lamented mustard gas and books about Stalin, and repeated a hypnotic mantra of "horrible poisons and diseases and gases and atomic weapons" with a mushroom cloud as an exclamation point.

Like Cincinnatus, Bush is the nation's leader in difficult times. But Bush fought tough and hard for this power, while Cincinnatus had to be gently coaxed to accept it.

Bush says this will be a quicker war if we do it now, and then everyone will be safe. Cincinnatus didn't say anything, made no promises, just did what he had to do. Cincinnatus took 16 days. Bush I, Clinton I and II, and Bush ½ have been bombing Iraq (both north and south) now for 12 years. And it hasn't even started yet.

Bush is begging Congress to give him more power to render unilateral punishment on the bad sovereign-of-the-month. In parts of the country where they hold the Constitution dear (obviously not Washington these days), these bold demands for extra-constitutional power today disturb us, just as the Roman senate seeking a dictator disturbed Cincinnatus.

Perhaps the choice of Cincinnati, like much of today's war talk and advocacy in Washington, was not completely logical nor thoroughly examined. Cincinnati strongly evokes the idea of addressing a dangerous challenge by consulting the wise and the qualified.

Retired generals who fought last time in the Gulf can't even get a seat at the forum.