No Matter Where Bush Goes, His Record Overseas Is A Millstone

by Steve

In the rush of other events today, several interesting foreign policy developments occurred. First, in a typical bit of Bush doublespeak that always has our allies wondering what the f*ck is wrong with 51% of the voters, Bush managed to blurt this bit of wisdom today:

"This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. Having said that, all options are on the table."

So, in the Bush dictionary this means:

a) We are not getting ready to attack Iran; we are ready now to attack Iran;

b) It won’t be us that attacks Iran, it will be the Israelis;

c) I’ve blown stuff out my ass before, so who cares what you think?

Second, Ahmed Chalabi allegedly withdrew from the running for Iraqi PM today, leaving Iraq’s interim vice president Ibrahim Jafari in a good position to be the country’s new PM, assuming there are no last minute surprises from Chalabi or interim PM Allawi. In any case, having either Chalabi or Allawi as Interior Minister in a new government, in charge of security and intelligence is a recipe for disaster. And this piece in Wednesday’s NYT points out how close the whole shaky enterprise may come to unraveling in the days ahead.

No matter what spin Bush and the White House want to put on his European Vacation this week, he got handed his hat today over the issue of lifting the arms embargo to China.

And that may be nothing compared to the smackdown that Pooty-Poot gives W later in the week.

Against this backdrop of Bush trying to make Europeans forget about the run-up to the Iraq invasion, we find out in Wednesday’s Guardian that the Blair government went ahead with what now appears to be an illegal war.

And as for Bush’s call to Europe to help him spread democracy to the world, Europeans reject W as a dance partner.