Bush curses in unscripted Mideast comments
By JULIE MASON
Copyright 2006 Houston ChronicleST. PETERSBURG – President Bush inadvertently dropped the facade of carefully scripted summit diplomacy today when his lunchtime conversation with other world leaders was picked up by Russian television.
“The irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive) and it’s over,” Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair during lunch today, unaware their microphones were on.
The exchange, broadcast by Russian host television as the Group of Eight world leaders gathered for a closed session on their last day here, revealed a more candid side of the polite, often bland diplomacy officials show publicly.
Before Blair leaned over and snapped off the microphones, he and Bush discussed the Middle East, made small talk about travel plans, Diet Coke, and upcoming remarks the leaders would be making as the session came to a close.
“I’m just going to make it up,” Bush said. “I’m not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them. Some of these guys talk too long.”
The other thing that came out of this is that “Condi” is going “out there.”
Update: This isn’t the best recording, but here’s the BBC’s footage + interview.
You can see the whole clip (fairly lousy quality) on the BBC news website
and the transcript is up at the Guardian
Isn’t it striking how crude and vulgar (because his way of speaking, not because he said ‘shit’) Bush sounds next to Tony Blair, with his patrician British accent? Although mind you Tony sounds annoying too…
Unfortunately, Bush reflects a good portion of American society and its attitude to the Middle East.
The truth of the matter, it seems to me, is that the US is not interested in a solution. In fact, my guess is that there are those who consider the mess in the Middle East ‘good business’.
The orders for more weapons to supply Israel with are rolling in. Plans for the nest war are being refined. Unfortunately, war is good business for a nation whose main industry is high tech and military applications.
Chris
PS. This is a great site! Keep up the good work.
I completely disagree with the prior poster.
Instead of looking for all sorts of foolish boogeymen in this chris, why not stare directly at the problem? The Arab/Muslim culture is the clear issue here.
Don’t you think that the Israelis would enjoy spending their hard earned money on something besides a massive detterent force aimed at the madmen right next door?
Chris, if you’d really like a solution you’ll have to look at both sides of this issue. The muslims triggered this current round of violence, a fact even the Saudis have publically noted.
the Lebanese did NOTHING about Hezbulla and refused Israel’s request that the Lebanese army patrol the border. In so called palestine the citizens ELECTED A TERROR GROUP to run their government.
And yet you bring us this “theory” that it’s all about American weapons sales. How blindered can a person be? How ignorant of world events?
As for lebanon there is one true tragedy. The lebanese may want many of the sames things as the Israeli’s but the critical difference is that the Israelis are willing to fight for them and the lebanese aren’t.
The net is alive with reasons why the lebanese did nothing about hezbullah. Oh they are too strong, oh they are just a radical fringe, oh we have plans and DIALOGUE.
but now what do we see? Real men with courage are doing the dirty work for the cowardly lebanese. The Israelis are taking on the ugly elements within the Arab muslim culture because the arabs themselves either cannot or will not.
This is similiar to the situation is Iraq where the Arab culture’s dysfunction is on clear display. These people cannot stop killing each other. The only smart thing to come out of this arab on arab bloodbath in Iraq is that the Sunnis have finally recognized that Americans are NOT part of the insanity.
Frankly the world has taken a good long look at this culture and what we’ve seen is simply apalling. Savagery and barbarity on a ghastly level seems completely acceptable to the average Yussef in the street. Beheadings? Ho Hum. Torture? Oh well. Mass Murder? la di dah.
Attention Arabs: this is YOUR culture and your religion. if what has been done in your name is NOT what you think of as your life style, then show the courage to contend with the forces of evil living among you.
If you do nothing, and that’s what we’ve seen thus far, then the world will rightly assume that the actions of these pyschotics are completely acceptable to you and proceed thusly.
The choice is YOURS, not ours. If Islam has been highjacked, show the same courage as the Americans on United 93. If the Arab culture is holding you back, then spend the energy you use to curse the jews on modernizing your lives.
Flowery rhetoric and hand wringing won’t win this. Hard hard fighting will. If the arabs continue to use words instead of deeds the world will note the stunning lack of courage possessed by an entire race of men.
We in America are unimpressed with the Arabs. Let’s see you prove us wrong.
Skip,
it seems to me that the Arabs are fighting… What I find impressive is that these people have the courage to go into battles in which they know they are outgunned.
You in America are so afraid to die that you would rather kill thousands of civilians from the air rather than put soldiers on the ground. You proved this in the first Gulf War, in Bosnia and Kosovo. Now in Iraq you have holed up in your bases and tremble to go outside of them except when absolutely needed.
I wonder if Americans would have the courage to fight if they werre outfitted only with what Hezbollah or the Iraqi insurgents have. Or if American youth would fight a modern army with stones as the Palestinians do. I seriously doubt it.
As for Arab culture and your judgements on it, that only shows up your own ignorance and poverty of spirit…
You tube now has loads of footage of the famous open-mike session if anyone wants to hear it straight from the ass’s mouth.
“Or if American youth would fight a modern army with stones as the Palestinians do.”
No. Of course not. And it has nothing to do with courage, but culture.
Americans do not fight for the sake of fighting. Or, rather, when we do, it is merely for the sake of the scrap, and not to prove anything. And these are brawls, in which no one is likely to suffer more than a few bruises and black eyes.
Americans would not fight tanks with stones because such activity is worthless. It doesn’t hurt the tanks, and it doesn’t win fights. Yes, you might be able to shame the enemy when they fire upon and kill the young men armed only with rocks, but there are more valuable things young men can do than merely getting themselves killed on TV.
Young men can get jobs and earn money for the cause. They can study and learn how to make better weapons than mere stones. They can learn to write and inspire others to take up the cause. They can take part in non-violent demonstrations, or violent acts of covert sabotage that might, you know, actually hurt the enemy.
American’s love life because we recognize the potential of it. A dead man can never cure a disease, or write a poem, or design a better tank-busting weapon. Nor can he sire the sons and daughters who may achieve those things, or teach the children of others so that they can achieve those things. Every single death robs us of the potential that life may have achieved. Our soldiers are precious to us. They must return, so they can teach the next generation of soldiers what they have learned. Because of this education, our weapons do not jam in the fine desert sand, we fight our way out of ambushes, and house-to-house fighting is not the horror for us that it might be for other nations. We do not fight to prove our courage. We do not fight to die gloriously. We fight to win. “The job of the American soldier is not to die for his country. The job of the American soldier is to make the other poor bastard die for his.�
Brian,
good going. Your last paragraph just about spells out why just about everyone hates America.
Thank you!
Chris –
Your posting proves that YOU are the one that hates America.
Damn well said Brian and Skip. I’d hate to think what this world would look like in 2006 without the United States of America.
As an American Egyptian – I don’t give a flying f*** what the rest of the “world” thinks. The rest of the world is not the flashpoint (yet) of WWIII and Islamic Terrorism. So sod off “rest of the world.” America doesn’t care.
Chris,
I’m confused. What about my last paragraph above “spells out why just about everyone hates America”? Do they hate America because we recognize the potential of every life? Because our soldiers and weapons are effective? Because we fight to win? (Do you know an army that fights to lose? I’ve never heard of such a thing.) I don’t see anything hateful in any of those things. I’m fairly certain the Japanese defense forces feel the same way, as do those of Great Britain, Germany, and Australia. Are they equally hated?
I’m not trying to be flippant, I’m really trying to understand your point.
Thanks,
Brian
Brian,
sorry about the confusion. I meant the last sentence. Perhaps you don’t percieve it, but it betrays a certain kind of arrogance that is specifically American. “Make the other poor bastard die for his.” I guess you have to not be American to see it. This type of arrogance can be seen in many places. Bush’s comments to Blair for example. The man really does think he is the boss of the world. And yes, everyone does fight to win. Hezbollah happens to be just about the only Arab force that has won so far against Israel…
Chris
Brian
Hesbollah has won against Israel? wake up from that dream there buddy, If Hezbollah were not hiding behind women and children with their weapons in houses and schools they would have already been decimated, however because Israel fights with the idea of less civilian casualties (which by the way I think is suicidal) it takes longer. Make no mistake they will crush Hezbollah, If you cannot see something different this time in Israel’s response you are deluding yourself.
Bush v Blair- neither comes off well but Bush is an unmitigated embarassment both in his presentation and in the hubris of his administration. Does he represent the average American? Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that he has little or no grasp of historical reference (see his remark about Iraq and the Hungarian Freedom fighters- and please remember the HF were fighting the Russians-aka the occupiers), geography (it’s simply amazing how big Russia and China are,isn’t it- maps are amazing things), and his personal good old boy persona does mimic certain populations. But where he does not resemble the average American is the willfulness of it all- the sense of calculated ignorance, the “funny” Bushisms, the sense of being guided, nay chosen by god to do something (whatever that might be) and the willingness to surround himself with people who make Ollie North look like a choirboy. The willful disregard of the Constitution has been a sight to behold. Say what you will about the Geneva Conventions but Article VI of the US Constitution make them and the Vienna Conventions the law of the land. Look it up.
The harm both internal and external this group has done to the US far exceeds the excesses of Nixon. It will take years to undo.
And as far as the US troops are concerned- they do not need to be teaching any future troops their particular brand of racism, disregard for civilian rights or inability to take a moral stand(ie Abu Ghraib)
What they do need is counseling, detox for various substances and major health care because the government that appreciates them so and the people who support them so greatly have exposed them to depleted uranium, white phosphorous, diseases and experimental vaccines- many of which will result in birth defects (now already being seen), in mental disorders, social alienation (the Stand-downs have been reporting increased numbers of present Iraqi war vets for over a year now) and other issues.
So, before this president gets the US into a proxy war with Syria and sets his sights on Tehran, I don’t it is really asking that much of him to try to act like an intelligent human being for a few days.
After all, he works for the people of the US. Surely we deserve better than some misspoken frat boy who is grinding the Constitution into the dirt.
Chris,
Thanks for the clarification. Honestly, we don’t see it that way, but I can certainly understand how it looks arrogant. We just shake our heads in shocked bemusement that everyone doesn’t feel that way about their own soldiers, honestly. Just part of the culture gap that gets wider the further east and west you go, I think.
As for Bush’s statements, well, that’s probably how most American’s see this situation. Israel pulled out of Lebanon, but Hezbollah did not disarm and the Lebanese army did not take up positions along the shared border. One side did what they were supposed to, to their detriment, and the other side did not keep its promise, so it’s hard to side with Hezbollah in this case. Throw in the kidnappings of Israeli soldiers and, honestly, it’s hard to find any redeeming value in Hezbollah’s actions, at least from this side of the Atlantic.
It’s known that Syria is supplying and supporting Hezbollah. It’s believed by most Americans that if Syria told Hezbollah to sit down and shut up, they’d do it. Which makes Bush’s statement only an echo of what most American’s think about this situation. I wouldn’t expect him to face much backlash for it outside of the press and his political opponents.
– Brian
By the same token, it appears to much of the rest of the world that if the US told Israel to chill for a few days,it would back off the bombings.
Also, I believe Israel is still holding several Lebanese that they kidnapped that they refused to give back from the last exchange. What about that?
Brian,
I think that our major point of disagreement, vis a vis Lebanon, is that about Israel having fullfilled its obligations.
Even Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora, who is by no means pro-Hezbollah, admitted that Israel must hand back Shebaa farms and the Lebanese prisoners, who, it may be noted, have been in Israeli custody for 18 years without trial.
Hezbollah has refused to disarm and fully integrate into Lebanese civil and political life because it deems that there are outstanding issues with Israel and therefore cause for resistance.
BTW…the ISraelis are having a hard time of it, I mean pushing into Lebanon. Hizbollah will certainly bloody their nose….
Chris