Disgusting Behavior By George W. Bush
Here is what George W. Bush said while speaking to the Knesset in Israel today:
Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
Some people suggest that if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of our enemies, and America rejects it utterly. Israel’s population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America stands with you.
This is obviously - obviously - a veiled attack on Barack Obama. And it is utterly disgusting that the President of the United States would engage in such petty, misleading smear based attacks in front of the parliament of one of our strongest allies.
Bush knows exactly what he is doing here -- or at least his advisors do. First, he is falsely saying that Obama wants to negotiate with terrorists. Not true. Second, he says that Obama's negotiation policy is equivalent to negotiating with Nazis before WWII, which in turn means that Obama is the sort who would allow the Holocaust to happen. This is bullshit on many levels. Using WWII and the Holocaust as an analogy for every foreign policy problem is a complete fallacy, and is only used by cowards and simpletons like Bush to present their political foes as Chamberlains and wimps. Sorry Bush/McCain, you guys are not Churchill. And two-bit thugs like Bashar al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (who was elected, by the way, because of Bush's bellicose language) are not Hitler.
Third, Bush hints at the false smear attack pushed by the House Republicans, saying that Obama called Israel a "constant sore". Once again, totally false.
For Bush to question Obama's dedication to Israel, in front of the Israeli Knesset, during a heated election, all in order to install his pal John McCain in the White House is completely repulsive. I have a very low opinion of Bush, but even this shocked me. If Bush had any balls, he would have just mentioned Obama by name. But we all know George W. Bush is too much of a wimp and a crook to stand up to anyone who can punch back.
Here is Barack Obama's statement in response:
“It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel. Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power - including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy - to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel.”
I also like Joe Biden's more blunt response:
“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset . . . and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”
“He is the guy who has weakened us,” Biden said. “He has increased the number of terrorists in the world. It is his policies that have produced this vulnerability that the U.S. has. It’s his [own] intelligence community [that] has pointed this out, not me.”
Biden noted that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have both suggested that the United States ought to find a way to talk more with its enemies.
"If he thinks this is appeasement, is he going to come back and fire his own cabinet?” Biden asked. “Is he going to fire Condi Rice?”
In a separate statement, Sen. John Kerry said that Bush "is still playing the disgusting and dangerous political game Karl Rove perfected, which is insulting to every American and disrespectful to our ally Israel. George Bush should be making Israel secure, not slandering Barack Obama from the Knesset."
Politically, the more Bush attacks Obama, the better Obama will look. But as an American, I am ashamed and infuriated. Congress should move to censure Bush immediately.
Oh, and it's no surprise to me, but John McCain agrees completely with Bush. Check out his lame attempt to label his foes as Chamberlains, and his flat-out lie about Reagan and Iran:
“Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,'’ Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.'’
Actually, Senator McCain, Ronald Reagan did negotiate with the Iranians. It's called the "Iran-Contra Affair," you were in Congress at the time, perhaps you forgot. We actually sold weapons to Iran to appease terrorists like Hezbollah and get them to release hostages, all under Reagan's orders!
There are conflicting accounts about why Iran released our hostages in 1980, but none involve Ronald Reagan simply imposing his will. The official story is that it was the Algiers Accords that led Iran to release our hostages in 1981. It was a Carter official, Warren Christopher, who negotiated this accord.
It has also been suspected, but never proven, that the Reagan campaign made a secret pact with Iran to hold the hostages until after the election. This is known as the "October Surprise".
Either way, McCain shows that he doesn't have the character or the knowledge one would expect in a president. He is either lying, or his senility is more advanced than we know. But it is once again clear that he has no class and no shame, just like his pal Bush.
posted by Existenz | 9:26 AM
|
0 Comments
