Being "pResidential"




Billmon:

The BBC has posted a transcript of the chat between Bush and Blair that was accidently captured on tape. The completely non-surprising thing about it is how inarticulate and scatter brained both Bush and Blair sound -- like a couple of dopeheads discussing their favorite recipes for hash brownies, instead of two world leaders trying to deal with a serious Middle East crisis.

I find this particularly inexcusible on Blair's part -- after all, English is his mother tongue.

But the really crucial part of the dialogue, I think, was this bit:

Blair: Look -- what does he think? (It appears from the context that the PM is talking about Syrian President Bashar Assad) He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine. If you get a solution in Israel and Palestine. Iraq goes in the right way . . .
Bush: Yeah -- he's [indistinct]

Blair: Yeah . . . He's had it. That's what all this is about -- it's the same with Iran.

This is fascinating as well as terrifying. It suggests that Bush and his faithful water carrier both really believe their own bullshit -- not just in terms of viewing Hezbollah and Hamas as the mindless tools of Syria and Iran, but also in their rosy-lensed assessments of how things are going in the Middle East these days.

Consider what Blair seems to be saying, and Bush grunting between mouthfuls of food (Yeah . . . Yeah.) These fools actually seem to think that Syria and/or Iran ordered their Hezbollah and Hamas minions to stir up trouble with the Israelis because Assad and/or the mullahs are worried that:

A.) The "Cedar Revolution" will create a strong, united Lebanon (Presumably one in which Syrian influence and Hezbollah muscle vanish into thin air.)

B.) There will be a peace settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. (Due, no doubt, to the heroic efforts of these two great humanitarians.)

C.) Things in Iraq will "go in the right way."

I mean, how much more out of touch with reality could the killer Bs possibly be? Their own wishful thinking about the consequences of their own pathetic follies appears to have left them with some wholly fantastical ideas about what motivates their enemies in the region. Either that, or they've completely bought the sugar coated lies being spoon fed them by their subordinates. My guess is that it's probably a bit of both -- creating a perfect, impenetrable feedback loop of flattery, deception and wish fulfillment.

Juan Cole says reading the transcript left him "shaken and trembling." I guess I would be too, if I hadn't already come to the conclusion that we're completely fucked. Pessimism does have it's advantages.

Still, it's hard not to be impressed with the level of delusion picked up by that treacherous microphone. I hate to violate Godwin's Law (and you all know how much I hate it) but this conversation reads, psychologically at least, like table talk between Hitler and one of his remaining puppet allies, circa the winter of 1945.

I'll add my own .00002 cents worth by noting that Nero's supposed fiddling or aria-singing while Rome burned seems relatively enlightened in comparison.

Besides, once the conflagration died, Nero, according to the evidence, rushed back to the city (he'd been...on vacation...hmmm) and began to assist the relief effort.

Meanwhile, according to First-Draft and FDL, other countries are busily evacuating their citizens in Lebanon...while the US outsourced the job to a cruise ship (and is planning to charge evacuees "a commercial rate". At the very least, they expect "a promise to pay." How charitable...but don't you think they could've taken some money that would otherwise go to Halliburton on a "sailboat fuel" contract?).

They say tragedy is eventually repeated as farce...what then?