Tuesday, February 21, 2006
HUH?
So now Kindler Gentler Georgie is getting tough for the first time. He will veto any attempt to stop the Dubai port purchase.
I'm speechless.... well, not quite.
The most obvious explanations for this sudden backbone are:
1. Bush has gone totally clinically insane.
2. Bush is owned, or blackmailed, by UAE, and has no choice but to support the deal.
In either case he should not continue to be President.
The only other motive I can even imagine is a sort of adolescent stubbornness. I remember the feeling: "So you other kids think I'm wrong? Well, I'll show you wrong. You haven't seen wrong yet!" This is a human emotion but not a mature one, and certainly not a basis for making foreign policy in wartime.
Beyond that, nothing.
This would be an ideal opportunity to show respect for the conservative base, as follows: "Oops! I've been so busy planning our options for Iran that I didn't pay enough attention to this question. You're right, it's a terrible idea. We'll seek bids from a more friendly company." Instead, KGG decides this is an ideal opportunity to simultaneously prove his opponents right and lose his supporters!!
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Later: Rush and others on the free trade / economoid side have been vigorously defending the administration, using all sorts of false arguments.... If you don't want UAE to manage the ports, you shouldn't let them have any trade at all, etc. No, Rush, that's not the point, and you know it. Nobody is claiming that the risk is huge, nor that we shouldn't deal at all with the UAE. But it is a moderately important choice, and IN WARTIME all of our security choices, even the incremental and symbolic ones, must help our allies and hurt our enemies. ¶ 2:53 PM
I'm speechless.... well, not quite.
The most obvious explanations for this sudden backbone are:
1. Bush has gone totally clinically insane.
2. Bush is owned, or blackmailed, by UAE, and has no choice but to support the deal.
In either case he should not continue to be President.
The only other motive I can even imagine is a sort of adolescent stubbornness. I remember the feeling: "So you other kids think I'm wrong? Well, I'll show you wrong. You haven't seen wrong yet!" This is a human emotion but not a mature one, and certainly not a basis for making foreign policy in wartime.
Beyond that, nothing.
This would be an ideal opportunity to show respect for the conservative base, as follows: "Oops! I've been so busy planning our options for Iran that I didn't pay enough attention to this question. You're right, it's a terrible idea. We'll seek bids from a more friendly company." Instead, KGG decides this is an ideal opportunity to simultaneously prove his opponents right and lose his supporters!!
-----
Later: Rush and others on the free trade / economoid side have been vigorously defending the administration, using all sorts of false arguments.... If you don't want UAE to manage the ports, you shouldn't let them have any trade at all, etc. No, Rush, that's not the point, and you know it. Nobody is claiming that the risk is huge, nor that we shouldn't deal at all with the UAE. But it is a moderately important choice, and IN WARTIME all of our security choices, even the incremental and symbolic ones, must help our allies and hurt our enemies. ¶ 2:53 PM
