posted August 03, 2006 04:01 PM              

By Matthew Yglesias, The American Prospect. Posted August 2, 2006.

The president's ignorance, on display for the world to see, would be hilarious if it weren't so dangerous.

quote:

---

"We discussed a lot of issues.

The Prime Minister has laid out a comprehensive plan.

That's what leaders do. (*duh!*)

They see problems, they address problems, and they lay out a plan to solve the problems.

The Prime Minister understands he's got challenges and he's identified priorities."

-- President George W. Bush, joint press availability with Nouri al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq, July 25, 2006

---

The truly shocking thing about that bizarre statement is that it wasn't even in response to a question.

Those were Bush's opening remarks.

He did, one assumes, actually meet with Maliki. And they must have talked about something. But Bush doesn't seem to have been listening.

Instead, he sounds like a college kid ************ in section because he didn't do the assigned reading.

"We talked about security in Baghdad," Bush observed, delving into specifics. "No question the terrorists and extremists are brutal."

No question.

This sort of display would be embarrassing were it not so frightening.

Two days later, with Tony Blair standing at the adjacent podium, things went from bad to worse.

One is used to hearing Bush say things that aren't true.

He appears, however, from the look on his face and from the baffling nature of the untruths he uttered, to have lapsed from dishonesty into confusion. (Sheer boredom may have sent him tumbling to new depths of ignorance.)

"There's a lot of suffering in the Palestinian territory," Bush mused, "because militant Hamas is trying to stop the advance of democracy."

It is?

Has Bush forgotten that Hamas came to power as a result of elections that heinsisted the Palestinian Authority hold?

I happen to think the White House made the right call on the question of Palestinian elections -- even in retrospect, even knowing that Hamas won -- though many observers think his policy has merely backfired.

Rather than defend the policy, however, Bush seems to have forgotten all about it.
(duh!)

He returned to the theme later in the press conference: "One reason why the Palestinians still suffer is because there are militants who refuse to accept a Palestinian state based upon democratic principles." (huh?)

That's absurd.

The president appears to be totally unfamiliar with what is perhaps the single most-discussed topic in international politics.

Nothing gets people disagreeing quite like the subject of how to apportion blame for the Palestinian peoples' considerable suffering.

But absolutely NOBODY blames Arab militants opposed to democratic principles.

Terrorists opposed to Israel's very existence?

Sure.

Israeli intransigence?

Why not.

But only someone paying no attention whatsoever would subscribe to Bush's theory.

We have, meanwhile, policies that match the intellectual cesspool of the president's rhetoric.

In its statements, the White House has consistently adhered to the view that the root cause of the troubles between Israel and Lebanon is Syrian and Iranian support for Hezbollah.

Thanks to the dinner roll incident at the G-8 meeting, we know this is Bush's sincere view. "You see," Bush famously explained to Blair, "the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this **** and it's all over."

He further elaborated: "I felt like telling Kofi to call, to get on the phone to Assad and make something happen."

There's something of a cliché going around about Bush talking loudly while failing to brandish a stick, but in truth he's mumbling indistinctly while Israeli bombs pummel Lebanon.

If Syria is the real problem here, then, not to put too fine a point on it, someone needs to take some action of some kind related to Syria.

After all, why would Syria tell Hezbollah to stop doing this **** ?

What combination of threats and inducements is Syria supposed to offer Hezbollah to get it to stop?

And why would Syria offer them anyway?

What's Kofi Annan supposed to do about this?

If Bush wants to make Syria do something, he needs to do something to make it happen. Either offer Syria something, or threaten Syria somehow, or some combination of the two. The same goes for Iran.

In case Bush hasn't noticed, the regimes in Damascus and Tehran aren't run by kind people looking to help the world out of the goodness of their hearts.

Nor has the administration's habit of vaguely suggesting we'd like to overthrow their governments rendered either nation more likely to help us or our Israeli friends out of a jam.

There's a temptation to call this combination of inflammatory tough-guy rhetoric and feckless inaction "the worst of both worlds," but in truth the war policy being advocated by the right's more fevered voices would actually be worse than Bush's embarrassing, illogical paralysis.

The real problem is that the risk of a wider regional war involving the United States remains.

And if that risk becomes a reality, our country will be led into it by a president who doesn't seem to grasp what's happening.

(Photo added by me)

http://www.alternet.org/story/39770/

posted August 03, 2006 05:57 PM            

Leftists like you and your friends at AlterNet just don't get it Rainbow...whether from a basic lack of braincells or from being so focused on the destruction of Bush that you're blind to facts.

Let's review.

Since Bush assumed office:

Libya has given up their WMD programs...including their nuclear weapons program. Smart move after seeing what happened to Saddam.

Syria has vacated Lebanon...under great pressure from the United States and our allies.

A murderous butcher has been brought to justice and free elections...several...have been held in Iraq. The Iraqi people have voted for freedom and representative government...and they did so under great threat and in high numbers.

A murderous regime in Afghanistan has been routed from power and free elections have been held which included women. The Taliban are reduced to ineffective raids where they are killed, their numbers diminished and those who survive forced to flee back into Pakistan.

The murderous communist dictatorship in North Korea have been exposed as the lying agreement breakers they are when Bush exposed the fact they broke their nuclear weapons agreement with the Clinton administration...from the very beginning. World opinion has mobilized against them and they're isolated and in danger of UN sanctions. But Kim Jong Il is on the front burner and in the US crosshairs and knows it.

The murderous Islamic terrorist regime in Iran has been exposed for the terrorists they are and world opinion is mobilized against their acquisition of nuclear weapons. They have been exposed as the primary force behind the terrorists of Hezbollah. None of that was being talked about before Bush named them as part of the axis of evil. They too are in serious danger of UN sanctions...or other action against them.

Syria has been exposed as a terrorist state and a supporter, funder and supplier of weapons to the terrorists of Hamas. None of that was heard before the Bush administration started pointing it out...and forcing their hand. Now, it's common knowledge and on the front burner.

The murderous al-Qaeda have had their structure and most of their leadership destroyed, killed or captured. bin Laden is in hiding and has no assurance he will ever again open his eyes when he falls asleep at night. Thousands of al-Qaeda have been killed or captured in Iraq as they mobilized to attack America there...and not here.

Israel is destroying the Iranian and Syrian proxies of Hezbollah and Hamas and...instead of the US attempting to rein Israel in...as has been the case each time they were attacked in the past, Bush is working on a solution to across border attacks by terrorists which has a good chance of success.

The A.O. Kahn nuclear weapons technology smuggling ring has been broken up and Kahn is under house arrest in Pakistan...instead of furnishing nuclear weapons technology and technical assistance to Iran, North Korea and others.

Whether one is an American supporter of communist dictatorships or Islamic terrorists, this has been a disaster for them. Bush has proved to be their worst nightmare and indeed, the worst nightmare of terrorists, communist dictatorships and terrorist regimes. Saddam qualified on all three counts.

Instead of sticking heads in the sand...the Clinton administration, most of Europe and American leftists while enemies built their arsenals, attacked America abroad and at home, Bush went after them all..in a variety of ways and put them, their plans and their weapons programs on the front burner and squarely in the public eye both in America and in the fast asleep Europe.

Everyone gets it now, there are enemies of western civilization bent on the destruction of liberal western societies, enemies who are trying to set the world on fire.

I said everyone gets it. That was an exaggeration. Leftists don't get it and probably aren't intellectually capable of getting it.

It's messy, it's deadly, people get killed and more will be killed before it's all over...and it will be over one day. But, as lioneye..and others have pointed out, these people must be stopped. There are no attractive alternatives when whole groups of people have declared war against you and vowed to conquer or destroy you.

No one can peacefully co-exist with those whose basic position is that their god orders them to either kill you, convert you or conquer you and demand tribute.

posted August 03, 2006 06:04 PM            

The leftest twits would rather believe in Lizard people taking over the world under the cover of the NWO that facts that support what Bush has done.

There is no amount of truth and no number of facts that will get into the heads of those that are card carrying twit club members. They would much rather pretend the news is run by Bush, that we live under a dictator and Saddam was actually a loving deity that served his people.

However, it is a bit comical to know that people like Rainbow, DayDreamer and Mirandee exist. People that can take a sentence or phrase and glean some conspiracy out of it, twist the words and then post drivel like the topic at hand LOL....

------------------
The democratic world believes that it is not the terrorists that are to blame, but us. Us, the westerners.
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the sooner you eliminate this misconception from your minds, the better.
We are NOT to blame. It is the freaking terrorists and the freaking terrorists only!!!! They are the bad guys. They do not understand concepts like peace, democracy, and respect for human life. They are, pure and simPle, EVIL!!!!! Behind all their political manipulations, if you carefully look at the actions of these MONSTERS, they are EVIL!!

http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000489.htm

posted August 03, 2006 08:34 PM            

Gee, everyone knows Bush controls the press. That's why they've been attacking Bush since he first ran for Governor of Texas...and they haven't let up one day in their attacks. Of course, it's only a scam and Bush has ordered them to attack him. Strange isn't it....how far leftists will go out into left field to prove a point when the facts prove otherwise?

Yes, for sure Bush is a dictator and America is a dictatorship. That's the reason all brain dead moron leftists who attack Bush are shot or rotting their a$ses off in dark, damp jail cells. And no one can tell me they aren't

I think I'm going to petition the Bush Dictatorship for the Tinfoil Hat and Enhanced Glasses concession. With all the leftist interest, might as well make some money off them.

Bush Unenhanced

posted August 04, 2006 08:34 AM              

He's just ****** stupid.