Bush*s U.N. Fiasco

[kskiska]

Bush’s U.N. fiascoPresident’s message: If you don’t want to help us, you’re on the side of the terrorists

Has an American president ever delivered such a bafflingly impertinent speech before the General Assembly as the one George W. Bush gave this morning? Here were the world’s foreign ministers and heads of state, anxiously awaiting some sign of an American concession to realism — even the sketchiest outline of a plan to share not just the burden but the power of postwar occupation in Iraq. And Bush gave them nothing, in some ways less than nothing.

IN THE FEW seconds he devoted to that subject, he cited only three areas in which the role of the United Nations (or any other nations) should be expanded: writing an Iraqi constitution, training a new corps of civil servants, and supervising elections. None of these notions is new.
Otherwise, Bush’s message can be summarized as follows: The U.S.-led occupation authority is doing good work in Iraq; you should come help us; if you don’t, you’re on the side of the terrorists.

The speech seemed cobbled from the catchphrases of last year’s playbook, as if Bush were trying to replicate the success of his previous appearance before the General Assembly — his September 2002 speech, which roused the Security Council to warn Saddam Hussein of “serious consequences” — without showing the slightest recognition that the old words have grown stale and sour.

more…
http://www.msnbc.com/news/970681.asp?0cv=OB10

[boxster]

1. He should have just stood up and said...

"Remember what I said last year? Still applies. With us or against us. Thank you for your time. Oh, and sex slaves are bad."

[jab105]

8. Ohhhh....

I gotta use that one:)

perfect!

[Fovea]

12. And send more volunteers.

for the horror work.

What a terrifying speech. About the worst thing he could have done for foreign relations.

What ever they gave him for breakfast should be off the menu from now on.

[DemoTex]

2. He is grasping

He is a pitiful and totally irrelevant minor character in a Shakspearean tragedy. The world knows. Oh yes!

[samsingh]

4. we are living in the twilight zone

is the admin totally insane?

[elfin]

3. He did NOT want to be there

His body language spoke volumes - especially while he was waiting to be introduced.

His writers did NOT want to write that speech. Usually they can come up with something that at least appeals to their base, but they were hamstrung because he couldn't talk about his Lord and Savior in that milieu.

The best they could come up with was the sex slave bit - but as another poster noted, brother Neil enjoyed exotic pleasures in Thailand, a notable practitioner of the trade. It probably further flummoxed the freepers who depend on the trade for companionship and now wonder if Dubya is really "their guy" after all.

[cliss]

5. The issue is,

I don't really think he wants help from the UN. Am I the only one who thinks so? I know everybody here at DU has been hoping for some "crow + French Fries", but it wasn't coming.

Bush was more hard-ass than ever. If he really wanted their help, he would have changed his tactics. Really, the man is no genius, but he's not mentally deranged either.

Visualize this for a minute: a group of pirates have found a fabulous treasure in water about 10 feet deep. They are unable to pull it out themselves. They curse their bad luck. They go into town, searching for some people to help them pull the treasure out. They hesitate. They really don't want to ask anyone else, because it means having to share the loot.

In the meantime, their ship is filling with water and their comrades' lives are in danger, and the tide is starting to pull the treasure out....

What to do next?

[DrBB]

6. Yes, there's something to this

Whenever he has to do what Colon wants, it's like Daddy sent him to the woodshed. He knows he has to do it, but there's nothing but petulance and resentment in his manner. Grudging. What's weird is the coercive sense--I mean that Bush, and as you say his speechwriters, seem coerced, half-hearted. He has his neo-con advisers, and then he has his Daddy Bush advisers. Right now he's forced to play with the friends Daddy likes, but you can tell he prefers it with those bad boys, Rummy and Wolfie and Dickie, and can't wait to get back with them, soon as the curfew is lifted.

[gratuitous]

7. I'm beginning to think . . .

I'm starting to think that the sole reason President Stupidhead went to the UN was as a sop to Chalabi, since it's his turn to sit in Iraq's seat this month at the General Assembly.

[realFedUp]

9. maybe the speech writers should just meet

they might be able to coordinate a uniform message better...

[salmonhorse]

10. Straight Up!!

I mentioned to my research associate, Ms Morehouse, that he seemed to have been waxing between oberservations centered upon the inner cities of America itself...

:shrug:

[paulk]

11. good to see this on MSNBC

right wing whores that they are

drip, drip, drip.....