Re: Bush is totally out of touch with reality
- From: "gaffo" <gaffo@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 00:34:37 GMT
Joe S. wrote:
QUOTE
One hopes the leader of the free world hasn't really, truly lost
touch with objective reality. But one does have to wonder.
Last week, George W. Bush invited nine conservative pundits to the
White House for what amounted to a pep talk, with the president
providing the pep. Somehow I was left off the list -- must have been
an oversight. But some columnists who attended have been writing
about the meeting or describing it to colleagues, and their accounts
are downright scary.
National Review's Kate O'Beirne, who joined the presidential chat in
the Roosevelt Room, told me that the most striking thing was the
president's incongruously sunny demeanor. Bush's approval ratings are
well below freezing, the nation is sooooo finished with his foolish
and tragic war, many of his remaining allies in Congress have given
notice that come September they plan to leave the Decider alone in
his private Alamo -- and the president remains optimistic and upbeat.
Bush was "not at all weary or anguished" and in fact was "very
energized," wrote Michael Barone of U.S. News & World Report. He
was "as confident and upbeat as ever," observed Rich Lowry of
National Review. "Far from being beleaguered, Bush was assertive and
good-humored," according to David Brooks of the New York Times.
Excuse me? I guess he must be in an even better mood since the
feckless Iraqi government announced its decision to take the whole
month of August off while U.S. troops continue fighting and dying in
Baghdad's 130-degree summer heat.
It's almost as if Bush were trying to apply the principles of
cognitive therapy, the system psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck developed in
the 1960s. Beck found that getting patients to banish negative
thoughts and develop patterns of positive thinking was helpful in
pulling them out of depression. However, Beck was trying to get the
patients to see themselves and the world realistically, whereas Bush
has left realism far behind.
"He says the most useful argument to make in support of his policy is
to show what failure would mean," Barone wrote of the president and
Iraq. "It would mean an ascendant radicalism, among both Shia and
Sunni Muslims, and it would embolden sponsors of terrorism such as
Iran. Al-Qaeda would be emboldened and would be able to recruit
forces."
Excuse me again? This is what Bush believes would happen? Hasn't he
noticed that these catastrophes have already befallen us? And that
they are the direct consequence of his decision to invade and occupy
Iraq?
At a news conference last week, someone tried to point this out. Bush
replied with such a bizarre version of history that I hope he was
being cynical and doesn't really believe what he said: "Actually, I
was hoping to solve the Iraqi issue diplomatically. That's why I went
to the United Nations and worked with the United Nations Security
Council, which unanimously passed a resolution that said disclose,
disarm or face serious consequences. That was the message, the clear
message to Saddam Hussein. He chose the course. . . . It was his
decision to make."
Let's see, we have learned that Iraq had no weapons of mass
destruction. That means Bush is claiming that Saddam Hussein "chose"
the invasion -- and, ultimately, his own death -- by not showing us
what he didn't have.
"Bush gives the impression that he is more steadfast on the war than
many in his own administration and that, if need be, he'll be the
last hawk standing," wrote Lowry. The president says the results of
his recent troop escalation will be evaluated by Gen. David Petraeus,
wrote Barone, and not by "the polls."
Translation: Everybody's out of step but me.
One of the more unnerving reports out of the president's seminar with
the pundits came from Brooks, who quoted Bush as saying: "It's more
of a theological perspective. I do believe there is an Almighty, and
I believe a gift of that Almighty to all is freedom. And I will tell
you that is a principle that no one can convince me that doesn't
exist."
It's bad enough that Osama bin Laden is still out there plotting
bloody acts of terrorism, convinced that God wants him to slay the
infidels. Now we know that the president of the United States
believes God has chosen him to bring freedom to the world, that he
refuses to acknowledge setbacks in his crusade and that he flat-out
doesn't care what "the polls" -- meaning the American people -- might
think. I'm having trouble seeing the bright side. I think I need
cognitive therapy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007
071901957.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
END QUOTE
he' every bit the fanatic that OBL is.
scarry.
he may invade Iran yet ;-/.
--
.
- References:
- Bush is totally out of touch with reality
- From: Joe S.
- Bush is totally out of touch with reality
- Prev by Date: Re: The height of arrogance:
- Next by Date: Killed in Chicago
- Previous by thread: Re: Bush is totally out of touch with reality
- Next by thread: Buckwheat Says Genocide Is OK, Isn't a Reason to Keep US Troops in Iraq
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
Loading
