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November 17, 2004
The New Face of American Diplomacy
Stamford, Conn., Nov. 17, 2004 — In the second debate between Bush and Kerry, held on October 8, a woman from the audience asked Bush the following:
“President Bush, during the last four years, you have made thousands of decisions that have affected millions of lives. Please give three instances in which you came to realize you had made a wrong decision, and what you did to correct it. Thank you.”
After spewing out 225 words that avoided the question, Bush finally addressed what he said is his only mistake: “Now, you asked what mistakes. I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them. I don't want to hurt their feelings on national TV.”
What I inferred from that was (1) Bush he blames anything that may go wrong on his advisors, and (2) those with opinions of policy that differed from his, were unwelcome.
When he was invited into the White House four years ago, Powell mistakenly thought Bush would respect him. Instead, Bush ignored almost all of Powell’s advice and sent him to the UN to spew nonsense about some dubious evidence on Iraqi WMD, in order to support the imminent American invasion of Iraq.
Rice , it is known, will basically do whatever George, or the Bush’s in general, tell her to do. I am reminded of something someone said to me when my sister and I drove down to Washington, D.C. in January 2001 to see Bush’s inaugural parade (and the high profile protests that accompanied it). A black woman we spoke to said the following about Condoleezza Rice (I paraphrase from memory). “Good for her for getting in there, but you KNOW hat one day when she’s walkin’ down the hall at the White House, that man (Bush) is gonna giver her a pat on the ass.” This woman meant this literally, and believed it. I had my strong doubts that that would take place, but I saw the metaphor immediately.
Now, after being the loyal lapdog for four years, Rice is getting her pat on the back, and her pat on the backside. Now there is no “moderate voice,” no sane voice, at the White House in the conversation about maintaining global stability.
Poor Colin. I had great respect for him until the 2003 UN nonsense.
I’m glad he is leaving, and I’m sure it was of his own volition (the rumor that he and Armitage would step down in January 2005 came as early as August 2003) but that “loyal soldier” crap went to far. He should have left in the middle of his term, like Christine Todd Whitman did (although even she didn’t call Bush on his bullshit). I think it may finally be time for me to get rid of my Colin Powell doll, which I found on sale in a toy store in a Syracuse, N.Y. shopping mall in 1992. Any takers?
(cartoon source: BlackCommentator.com)
Posted by MJuhre at November 17, 2004 01:59 PM