His attempt to blame the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln
\nsailors<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> for the “Mission Accomplished” banner, a White House
\ncreation that provided the TV backdrop for his triumphal May 1 speech declaring victory in Iraq
\n— oops, the end of major combat operations — is only the most laughable and makes him sound
\nlike one of those French weasels his minions used to blame for not supporting him. <\/P>
\nHere are some equally ludicrous statements from his press conference.<\/P>
\n
QUESTION:<\/STRONG> Will you acknowledge now that you were
\npremature in making those remarks [about the end of combat]?<\/I>
\n
ANSWER:<\/STRONG> I think you ought to look at my speech. I said
\nIraq’s a dangerous place, got hard work to do, there’s still more to be done. … But my statement
\nwas a clear statement, basically recognizing that this phase of the war for Iraq was over, and there
\nwas a lot of dangerous work. And it’s proved to be right. It is dangerous in Iraq.<\/I><\/P>
\nIf anybody asks him, he’ll also predict that the sun will set this evening.<\/P>
\n
Q:<\/STRONG> If there are foreign terrorists involved, why aren’t Syria and
\nIran being held accountable?<\/I>
A:<\/STRONG> Yes, well, we’re working
\nclosely with those countries to let them know that we expect them to enforce borders, prevent
\npeople from coming across borders if, in fact, we catch them doing that.<\/I><\/P>
\nIt wasn’t enough to say we’d let them know. He had to let us know, in typical pol’s jargon
\n“we’re working closely with them.” I’d bet that collaboration is news to Syria and
\nIran. As revealed today, in fact, Iran won’t share
\nAl Qaeda intelligence with the U.S. government<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> and pooh-poohed
\ncharges that terrorists were slipping into Iraq across its borders. “We don’t have any relations with
\nAmerican security services so there is no reason to do anything on this issue,” an Iranian
\nspokesman said. <\/P>
\nWill someone on the White House staff please inform the president, since he doesn’t read the
\nnews?<\/P>
\n
Q:<\/STRONG> In recent weeks, you and your White House team have
\nmade a concerted effort to put a positive spin on progress in Iraq.<\/I> [The reporter then referred
\nto Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s leaked “slog” memo casting doubt on the progress.]
\nAnd people out there don’t believe that the administration is leveling with them about the
\ndifficulty and scope of the problem in Iraq.<\/EM>
A:<\/STRONG> I can’t
\nput it more plainly; Iraq is a dangerous place. That’s leveling. It is a dangerous place.<\/I><\/P>
\nIf that’s leveling, the Flat Earth Society has a place reserved for him.<\/P>
\n
Q:<\/STRONG> Are you considering the possibility of possibly adding more
\nU.S. troops to the forces already on the ground there to help restore
\norder?<\/I>
A:<\/STRONG> Yeah, that’s a decision by John Abizaid. He
\nmakes that — General Abizaid makes the decision as to whether he needs more troops.
\n…<\/I><\/P>
\nWill someone on the White House staff please remind the president he is the
\ncommander-in-chief? Recently he made sure to tell the press that he was, so it could spread
\nthe word to us, but it seems he’s forgotten.<\/P>
\n
To another question asking “Can you promise a year from now that you will have reduced the
\nnumber of troops in Iraq,” he replied that it was “a trick question, so I won’t answer it.” I say a
\ntrick question deserves at least a trick answer. Or something like the statement he made on
\nMonday that the increased violence in Iraq was a sign of progress. <\/P>
\n
As one commentary noted: “That formulation left even some Republicans
\nwincing.”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> Considering the new death-toll
\nmilestone reached today in Iraq<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>, they should be doing more than
\nthat.<\/P>
\nHalf of the Arab world is laughing at the upside-down notion that the attacks are the result of
\nU.S. success just as we used to laugh at Iraqi propaganda. “<\nFONT color=#003399>Remember how Saddam Hussein talked<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> about
\nwinning the mother of all battles?” Muhsen Awaji, a Saudi Islamist lawyer, told a New York
\nTimes reporter. “It is the same disease.”<\/P>
\nPOSTSCRIPT:<\/STRONG> As if to prove parallel universes do exist, here’s a
\nLos Angeles Times reporter’s take on the press conference:
\nJocular Bush Keeps It Light for Most
\nPart<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>.<\/FONT><\/EM><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Does the president know what the meaning of “is” is? I’m not talking about Slick Willie. I mean Gee Dubya Shrub, whose evasions — a mixture of half-lies and outright lies — were on display again yesterday in his Rose Garden press conference. (Here’s the entire transcript.) His attempt to blame the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-70","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}