George W. Bush is a douche. This may be best evidenced by his current approval rating of 31%. To put it another way, up to 69% of American citizens may consider him to be a douche. His douche rating actually may be higher if a significant number of that 31% also approve of douches.
For an alleged douche, why am I spending so much time talking about him? Well, for one thing, he continued to spread his iron-handed brand of foreign policy today by alluding that some people (no names were mentioned) wanted to talk to terrorists. The media jumped on this as a reference to Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama. Obama followed along and fell for it — hook, line, and sinker, so to speak. Not only did Douche, errr, I mean Bush suggest that diplomacy was wrong, but he likened it to being a policy of “appeasement” as applied to Adolph Hitler. This was really the last straw in my book for Bush. I’m now one of the people counting the days until he leaves office gleefully. Now I’m also wondering what’s taken me so long.
I’m not sure where to start with this rant. Maybe I could start with the fact that war is a result of failure. Diplomacy is always the best starting point (and hopefully finishing point) in any type of conflict. Diplomacy is not appeasement. Appeasement is akin to surrender. By having an open line of communication with a nation such as Iran, the President can say something like: “We know you are backing insurgents in Iraq that are killing American soldiers. Here’s the proof. What do you intend to correct this problem?” At that point, Iran could blow the entire matter off. That’s when you send your diplomatic envoy back to Tehran to discuss the consequences of not addressing this issue. But who knows, maybe Iran will come clean. Diplomacy allows you to have a chance at creating a win-win situation (for the US, keeping your “enemies” closer and for Iran, not having your country totally destroyed). Diplomacy allows for you to draw a line in the sand. The cat-and-mouse, saber rattling media circus crap of the Bush administration (and the Iranian government) moves everyone closer to being in a lose-lose situation.
There is a huge sense of irony (or maybe Iran-y) in Bush’s condemnation of such Nazi-like tactics as diplomacy. The biggest of which is hinted at in the title of this post, is that George W. Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, had extensive business dealings with the Nazis. I’m not sure if there’s any truth to this, but it is a very established rumor on the Internet. In addition, the location of Bush’s possible Obama criticism is quite curious — in front of the Knesset in Israel. Taking pot shots at Obama in such a setting seems a bit tacky. Almost like a country music group going to Europe and talking about how ashamed they are of coming from the same state as the President. All in all, this seemed more like a speech more appropriate for an ex-President to make. Go to Israel, say what your audience wants you to say, collect a big check for doing it.
To conclude, I’d like to deliver a big shout-out to Joe Biden for calling the President’s commentary exactly what it was: BULLSHIT!
Entries (RSS)