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President George W. Bush stretches out in his golf cart
at the Cape
Bushisms
President Bush
President George W. Bush will leave behind a legacy of Bushisms, the
label stamped on the commander in chief's original speaking style. Some
of the president's more notable malaprops and mangled statements:
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"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." September
2000, explaining his energy policies at an event in Michigan.
"Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?" January
2000, during a campaign event in South Carolina.
"They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they
misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander in chief,
too." Sept. 26, 2001, in Langley, Va. Bush was referring to the
terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.
"There's no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind, that we will
fail." Oct. 4, 2001, in Washington. Bush was remarking on a
back-to-work plan after the terrorist attacks.
"It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind
of human cloning to come out of that chamber." April 10, 2002, at the
White House, as Bush urged Senate passage of a broad ban on cloning.
"I want to thank the dozens of welfare-to-work stories, the actual
examples of people who made the firm and solemn commitment to work hard
to embetter themselves." April 18, 2002, at the White House.
"There's an old saying in Tennessee I know it's in Texas, probably
in Tennessee that says, fool me once, shame on shame on you. Fool me
you can't get fooled again." Sept. 17, 2002, in Nashville, Tenn.
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never
stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and
neither do we." Aug. 5, 2004, at the signing ceremony for a defense
spending bill.
"Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB/GYNs
aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."
Sept. 6, 2004, at a rally in Poplar Bluff, Mo.
"Our most abundant energy source is coal. We have enough coal to last
for 250 years, yet coal also prevents an environmental challenge."
April 20, 2005, in Washington.
"We look forward to hearing your vision, so we can more better do our
job." Sept. 20, 2005, in Gulfport, Miss.
"I can't wait to join you in the joy of welcoming neighbors back into
neighborhoods, and small businesses up and running, and cutting those
ribbons that somebody is creating new jobs." Sept. 5, 2005, when Bush
met with residents of Poplarville, Miss., in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina.
"It was not always a given that the United States and America would
have a close relationship. After all, 60 years we were at war 60 years
ago we were at war." June 29, 2006, at the White House, where Bush met
with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
"Make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is, sir. I talk
to families who die." Dec. 7, 2006, in a joint appearance with British
Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"These are big achievements for this country, and the people of
Bulgaria ought to be proud of the achievements that they have achieved."
June 11, 2007, in Sofia, Bulgaria.
"Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction. Thank you for
being such a fine host for the OPEC summit." September 2007, in
Sydney, Australia, where Bush was attending an APEC summit.
"Thank you, Your Holiness. Awesome speech." April 16, 2008, at a
ceremony welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to the White House.
"The fact that they purchased the machine meant somebody had to make
the machine. And when somebody makes a machine, it means there's jobs at
the machine-making place." May 27, 2008, in Mesa, Ariz.
"And they have no disregard for human life." July 15, 2008, at the
White House. Bush was referring to enemy fighters in Afghanistan.
"I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North
Koreans right here in the Oval Office." June 26, 2008, during a Rose
Garden news briefing.
"Throughout our history, the words of the Declaration have inspired
immigrants from around the world to set sail to our shores. These
immigrants have helped transform 13 small colonies into a great and
growing nation of more than 300 people." July 4, 2008 in Virginia.
"The people in Louisiana must know that all across our country there's
a lot of prayer prayer for those whose lives have been turned upside
down. And I'm one of them. It's good to come down here." Sept. 3,
2008, at an emergency operations center in Baton Rouge, La., after
Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast.
"This thaw took a while to thaw, it's going to take a while to
unthaw." Oct. 20, 2008, in Alexandria, La., as he discussed the economy
and frozen credit markets.
The Israeli invasion of Gaza, launched Saturday, might
very well be George W. Bush's last and final war crime. For eight years,
Bush has coupled unparalled ignorance of the Middle East with supreme
arrogance. It is precisely that deadly combination of ignorance and
arrogance that is on display now, as a politically motivated Israeli
invasion of Gaza unfolds with the full support of the Bush
administration.
In his weekly radio address, delivered as Israeli tanks and armor
rumbled into the Gaza Strip, Bush declared:
"This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas -- a
Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for
Israel's destruction. ... Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket
attacks on Israel is not acceptable. And promises from Hamas will not
suffice -- there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure
that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end. I
urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror."
A more sweeping endorsement of Israel's action is hard to imagine.
Writing in the Post, columnist Jim Hoagland, a reliable,
neoconservative-allied scribbler, describes it this way:
"He did not just give Israel a green light to inflict as much damage as
possible on Hamas once that radical movement foolishly renounced a
six-month-old truce. Bush knocked down the traffic light post and waved
the Israelis through the intersection."
Personally, I find Hamas despicable. It is a right-wing Islamist group
with open terrorist inclinations, motivated by a fanciful notion that it
can defeat Israel with its pinprick attacks. I've also written
extensively, including in my book, Devil's Game: How the United States
Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, how Israel created Hamas
systematically and deliberately during the 1970s and 1980s, building up
the Muslim Brotherhood and Ahmed Yassin's proto-Hamas movement as a
counterweight to Fatah.
But Israel could easily have absorbed the rockets launched by Hamas,
nearly all of which crash harmlessly in remote areas, if it had truly
sought to work out an accommodation with the Palestinians. Most
important, Israel could have endorsed and supported efforts by Saudi
Arabia, Egypt, and others to create a lasting accord between Hamas and
Fatah. Instead, Israel did the opposite, meeting each of Hamas' acts of
violence with far greater violence of its own.
As I've written in this space earlier, the outcome of Israel's action is
likely to be to strengthen, not weaken, Hamas. It will also have the
following collateral effects: it will undermine the moderate wing of the
Palestinian movement, perhaps fatally. It will weaken the government of
Egypt, boosting the power of the radical-right Muslim Brotherhood there,
to the point where Egypt's regime could collapse, with incalculable
consequences. It will boost radicalism across the region, especially its
Islamist variant, in Lebanon and Iraq in particular, and help Iran gain
traction among otherwise unreceptive Arab populations.
Hamas is unlikely to seek a deal now. Having watched Israel blunder into
Lebanon two years ago, in a futile effort to eradicate Hezbollah, only
to see that movement emerge victorious and take control of part of
Lebanon's own government, Hamas is not going to sue for peace. In that,
they may be wrong, since Gaza is not Lebanon. In Gaza, Hamas has no
access to resupply its armaments, and the territory on which it operates
is extremely limited. So it is going to suffer severe military losses
and vast casualties against the lethal Israeli Defense Forces.
Israel's objectives aren't clear. Israeli hawks, including Bibi
Netanyahu -- appearing Sunday on CNN's Late Edition -- insist that
Israel cannot stop its action until Hamas is utterly defeated, whatever
that means. In the New York Times, two top Israeli leaders are quoted to
the effect that Israel's objective is regime change and the elimination
of Hamas. Foreign Minister Livni put it this way:
"There is no doubt that as long as Hamas controls Gaza, it is a problem
for Israel, a problem for the Palestinians and a problem for the entire
region."
And Haim Ramon, the vice premier, said:
"What I think we need to do is to reach a situation in which we do not
allow Hamas to govern. That is the most important thing."
But in trying to eliminate Hamas, Israel will revive Hamas, which has
been losing popularity dramatically until the current explosion. With
Barack Obama maintaining his sphinx-like silence, it's the
Bush-Cheney-Rice administration that remains in charge. They clearly
have no intention of intervening, unless Israel gets into trouble and
requests help. The Swampland blog at Time suggests that Obama's approach
might be different from Bush's:
"No doubt, the Israelis want the operation to be over before the Obama
inauguration--it's not neighborly to present your most important
potential ally with a crisis at his moment of ascension. But it is very
easy to get to stuck, and hurt, in alley-fighting. I hope that Israel is
working as hard behind the scenes to arrange a quick cease fire as it is
fighting on the ground. It would be nice if we had a President of the
United States with the credibility and ingenuity to make it happen.
Perhaps we soon will."
I'm not convinced. So far, at least, Obama has given no indication that
he'd do anything different. I'd like to think he would. Some of his
advisers, before the election, told me that they thought Obama would
talk to Hamas. Let's hope so.
bushisms |
