"Just a Comma"

Bush to Blitzer on CNN (posted at Wonkette):

“I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iran — Iraq — it will look like just a comma because there is — my point is, there’s a strong will for democracy, these people want a unity government, the unity government’s functioning.”

Juan Cole's answer to the Bush quote, "But Iraq is very clearly an exclamation point. Now you know why the whole policy has been wrong. Bush has been trying to close off a dependent clause, not realizing he was forcefully making a declarative statement."

And here I thought it was Bush's intention to change the world.

"In these four years, Americans have seen the unfolding of large events....The attack on freedom in our world has reaffirmed our confidence in freedom's power to change the world." (State of the Union Speech, 2005).

And then there is Rice and her, "birth pangs of a new Middle East" comment.

Richard Debs, (former Chair of the Board of the American University of Beirut) said on Democracy Now!, "This can't go on, this American incursion in creating a new Middle East, as the Secretary of State said, going through the birthing pains of creating a new Middle East. A new Middle East for what? A new Middle East for the benefit of Israel and the United States. That's the view over there.

Those are code words. “Democracy” has become a codeword, I’m sorry to say, and not a good codeword in the Middle East. Democracy stands for now, in their perception, the idea of American sovereignty over the whole area and Israeli incursions into the whole area. It's a very sad situation."

The Bush definition of "Freedom" is capitalism. As in "Freedom is exported every day, as we ship goods and products that improve the lives of millions of people."

While the Bush definition of "Democracy" is imperialism - the US right to control other's countries.

It's hard to tell - does Bush not want us to take Iraq seriously (it being a "comma") - or to not take him and his mission seriously. We all know that there was not a mission that was accomplished - other than taking Saddam out of power. Unless the mission was to turn Iraq into a mess.

Or when he says "there’s a strong will for democracy" - does he mean that he thinks that there are a lot of people in Iraq who have become so desperate (because of the situation created by the US military) that they are ready for the US military to come and take an even larger role.

Most of what Bush says is gobbledygook - and I certainly don't expect honesty or anything informative to come out of his mouth. But sometimes there are clues between the words - if you know what his definitions are.

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