All right.

I've gotten quite a few emails asking me if this George W. Bush character is a modern day me, you know, a modern day Alexander the Great.

Personally, I think it's nonsense, since last time I checked, I was the last king to be named "The Great."

But, given all of the letters and emails I've gotten, I decided to pen the following.

Enjoy,

Alexander the Great

~

George W. Bush, a modern day Alexander The Great?

With the much anticipated release of Oliver Stone’s Alexander finally here and US President George W. Bush’s reelection a reality, one cannot but help draw comparisons – or at least attempt to – between the great Macedonian king that I was and the current leader of the free world, President Bush.

Frankly, while many historians will laugh at the mere notion that George W. Bush has anything in common with me, the fact of the matter is that both George and I share some blaring similarities despite some major, obvious differences.

First, the differences

Yes, it’s true: I was by far the greatest military commander of all time. George W. Bush’s first term is synonymous with the disaster in Iraq, at least when measured with stability (or lack thereof), building the peace and the number of casualties on both sides of the assault.

Furthermore, I was known for living, eating, fighting and bleeding alongside my troops, something I learned from one of my teachers, Leonidas. To be fair with President Bush, practically every other American President would also fail here, along with most (if not all) commanders dating back hundreds of years.

While the differences are actually far more numerous, many have to do with the difference in the times in which we lived, for we also share an eerily high number of important similarities.

Now, the similarities

Mother’s Ambition

Both George W. Bush and myself owe a large debt of gratitude to our mothers' love, support, shrewdness and ambition. Historians would agree that my impact in history would have never taken place had it not been for my mother’s vision for me.

Fatherly Advice

We've also had fathers who were both in politics. Bush’s father, of course, served as the forty-first President of the United States. My father, Philip II, was King of Macedon and de factor ruler of Ancient Greece until his assassination. In fact, Philip was quite the ruler, having leveraged his base in Macedonia to wield considerable authority over all of the Greek city-states.

President Bush Sr., of course, never made it to his second term, bowing out to the subsequent President, a certain Democrat by the name of Bill Clinton. In a parallel universe, Bush Sr.'s failed reelection is analogous to Philip's failed conquest of Persia. As Philip II was assassinated before his “second term,” Greece’s conquest of Persia slipped through his fingers and fell firmly onto my lap. Who said life was fair? Think Florida or Ohio.

Like myself – who went on to conquer Persia and do what my father could not do – George W. Bush has now done what his father could not do, that is, win reelection. Regardless of what George W. Bush does in his second term, his resounding victory over the Democrats and John Kerry is no less spectacular than my victory over the Persians and their leader, Darius.

All right, so my victories were far more spectacular. I could take out Ohio in an afternoon.

Weak Opposition

Ah Darius... Which brings us to the next similarity: in our ultimate struggle for greatness, both George W. Bush and yours truly took on less than formidable foes: Darius was no Cyrus The Great, who had founded the Persian Empire a few centuries before Alexander’s time. In the same vein, John Kerry was no Bill Clinton, who had wrestled the White House away from the Republicans in 1992 and founded, at least figuratively, a Democratic Party Empire throughout the 1990s.

West meets East

In what is arguably the greatest similarity between President George W. Bush and myself, both of us have, arguably purposely, led the Western world in a clash of civilizations against the Eastern world. Up to my time - despite Ancient Greece’s supremacy in many things - it was Eastern cultures that permeated over Western ones, be it Egyptian, Babylonian or Persian. I changed all of that and was the main reason why to this day, it is Western thought that looms tall over Eastern ways.

Analogously, George W. Bush has made his crusade against the East a central motif of his administration. The Barbarians that Aristotle talked of have been replaced some twenty-three hundred years later by the same cast of characters.

War Profiteering

While George W. Bush and his supporters have to some extent successfully convinced their people that the War in Iraq was to promote democracy and instill freedom, the truth of the matter is that Iraq’s large oil reserves helped boost its importance. Iraq suddenly became a priority in the list of states the Bush administration sought to “end,” in the words of neoconservative hawk Paul Wolfowitz.

Similarly, while Philip and I sought to both liberate Greek cities in Asia Minor from Persian rule and avenge the destruction of Athens by Persia in 480 BC, what really drove me was to win the vast gold reserves that the Persian Empire was hoarding. I knew that, you knew that and the Greek and Persian people knew that.

It was this gold that drove me to lead my men on a twenty-two thousand mile odyssey spanning twelve years.

I did travel all the way to India, but once there, I wept because there were “no more lands for me to conquer,” even though the fact is that there was no more gold for me to conquer. After Persepolis, the cost of war far outweighed the profits to be made on war, so I knew that I had to return.

Overstretched Army

Of course, I did not. I ran around like a chicken with no head, even considering heading out to Italy and Sicily before ultimately dying in Babylon. President Bush and his administration are already plotting the next stages of their war on terror despite having their young men and women stretched too thin.

Spin Doctoring

I enlisted the services of Artistotle’s nephew Callisthenes to accompany me in my sojourn to Persia in order to win over the facts and convey them in the proper light. Today, we would call his efforts propaganda.

Two millenia later, in foreign policy matters: winning the hearts and minds in Iraq and Afghanistan, and America, requires much of the same strategy. Domestically, with names like the Patriot Act and No Child Left Behind, words are being spun faster than ever.

Business of War

George W. Bush and I shared another similarity, we both continued our fathers’ efforts to commercialize the War Machine we had inherited. I made the military a real profession, offering benefits that were unheard of at the time. Bush Jr. has made the military a profit center that was unheard of in any other administration.

Unflinching Commitment

I spent seven months building not one, but two man-made bridges to get into the island fortress city of Tyre. My men and I were willing to give the fleeing Persian king Darius a full seven months to retreat and rebuild his army so that we could infiltrate the fortress city and win over an important port city.

George W. Bush has done the same in Iraq, even though he will likely spend much longer than seven months in Iraq. His right hand man has been talking of a six-year stay in Iraq, outlasting even the Second Great War of the 20th century. The President maintains that this is necessary to continue the noble and virtuous efforts they have undertaken in exporting democracy.

The Realities of Occupation

I learned in Persepolis that no matter how noble my intention might be to develop a World Empire based on Hellenic Civilization, an occupying force remains that: an occupying force. As such, even though I sincerely sought to be seen as God’s chosen leader of the Persian people, I knew that I would inevitably be seen as a brutal occupier.

Divine Intervention

And on the issue of God, an issue that President George W. Bush has made central to his reelection and being, both the President and I believe beyond any doubt that we were chosen - by the Gods in my case and by God in George W. Bush’s case - to lead their cause.

The Decline of the Greek Empire

I Alexander took it one step further and began to insist that Greeks prostrate before me, something that was actually borrowed from the Persian handbook but frowned upon by my Greek cohorts. By doing so, I alienated my base.

What does the future hold for the US and George W. Bush?

The Decline of the American Empire?

My downfall can be attributed to numerous things; the insistence of having my subordinates prostrate before me was but one. Surely President Bush will never make his people bow before him... but the indirect effect it had on my people was that I lost touch with my most ardent supporters.

When it comes to factors that explain why the Greek Empire fell, another reason was that my empire was stretched too thin, something that now haunts America, even more so than it ever haunted the Greek Empire. And if that were not enough, unlike America today, Ancient Greece was sitting on tons of gold and Persia's riches. Until the situation in Iraq improves and the promise of Iraq's vast oil reserves turn the red into black, President Bush might lead his Empire in the same direction that Alexander led his, to its demise.

Is this a criticism of President Bush? Of course not. Who wouldn't want to be compared to me, Alexander The Great? It is, however, a reminder that all men, no matter how great, eventually do take on more than they can chew, and in the process, take down great empires with them.

The End