Sidney Blumenthal: Bush's European disaster

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/06/14/bush_foreign_policy/

Bush's European disaster

The president's trip was a pageant of disdain, delusion and provocation masquerading as a respite from his troubles at home.

By Sidney Blumenthal


I returned from Europe a week before President Bush departed for the G8 summit in Germany. In Rome and Paris I met with Cabinet ministers who uniformly said the chief issue in transatlantic relations is somehow making it through the last 18 months of the Bush administration without further major disaster. None of the nonpartisan think tanks in Washington can organize seminars on this overriding reality, but within the European councils of state the trepidation about the last days of Bush is the No. 1 issue in foreign affairs.

One of the ministers with whom I met, who had supported the invasion of Iraq and had been an admirer of outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair's, ruefully cited Blair's remark about Iraq at his joint press conference with Bush on May 17 at the White House: "This is a fight we cannot afford to lose." "Cannot? Cannot lose?" mocked the minister. "Should not have lost."

High officials of European governments describe U.S. influence as squandered and swiftly eroding (one minister went down a list of Bush administration officials, rating them according to their stupidity), the country's moral authority nil, lethal power vacuums emerging from Lebanon to Pakistan, and Europeans incapable on their own of quelling the fires that burn far closer to them than to the U.S. through their growing Muslim populations and proximity to the Middle East. They have no illusions that they will be treated seriously as real allies or that there will be a sudden about-face by the Bush administration. Their faint hope -- and it is only a hope -- is that they have already seen the worst and that it is not yet to come. Even worse than Bush, from their perspective, would be another Republican president who continued Bush policies and also appointed neoconservatives. That would toll, if not the end of days, then the decline and fall of the Western alliance except in name only, and an even more rapid acceleration of chaos in the world order.

Bush's procession through Europe was a pageant of contempt, disdain, delusion, provocation and vanity masquerading as a welcome respite from his troubles at home. In Albania he landed at last in a place where he was hailed as a conquering hero. His demolition derby of U.S. influence was presented as a series of bold moves, but it confirmed the fears of the other world leaders at the G8 summit (and elsewhere) that the rest of Bush's presidency will be an erratic series of crashes. His performance ranged from King Nod, issuing proclamations oblivious to and even proud of their negative effect, to King Zog (the last king of Albania). No president has had a more disastrous European trip since President Reagan placed a wreath on the graves of SS soldiers in the Bitburg cemetery. Yet Reagan's mistake was unintentional and symbolic, a temporary and superficial setback, doing no real damage to U.S. foreign relations, while Bush's blunders not only reinforced counterproductive policies but also created a new one with Russia that has the potential of profoundly undermining U.S. national security interests for years to come.

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[David Zephyr]

1. Excellent article. Thanks, babylonsister.

K&R

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

2. That is a brutal assessment.

Particularly coming form the mild-mannered Sydney Blumenthal!

Frankly, I knew well before Junior left that he would crash and burn and I am sure that many others would share my sentiment.

[Benhurst]

3. Recommended #2

:kick:

[Richard Steele]

4. K&R

[piesRsquare]

5. Great article, but

I have to disagree about the "fugue state" thing.

It's difficult for sane people to "go through the looking glass"; if I were to form an opinion based exclusively on this article, it would be that Mr. Blumenthal is the one in denial. I write this simply because in Bush's reality (and that of his buddies), Iraq is going exactly as it should.

In the viewpoint of a profit-seeking businessperson with anti-social personality disorder, what has happened in Iraq is the result of a masterful plan. Look at the other countries from which we are plundering resources; a perfect example is Democratic Republic of Congo. A country cannot be exploited for its natural resources if it is stable. Unfortunately, for the sick businesspeople like Dick Cheney and George Bush, Iraq was a stable nation (suffering horribly from sanctions, but stable nonetheless).

Bush's "winning" the presidency in 2000 was a dream-come-true for these sickos. Plenty of money (the US Treasury) and a huge military, all at their disposal. These guys purposefully destroyed the country and destabilized it so they could exploit it. The administration believes that the military is theirs to do with as they please; the US Treasury is theirs to spend as they please. They "won" in 2000; it's "theirs". Other people are just objects to be used. There's no such thing as "country", in the "community-sense" of the word, to them. They don't care about the plight of other Human Beings; they can't. They're not capable of caring. Just like CEO's who accept multi-million dollar yearly bonuses and lay-off thousands of workers, nothing can make them care.

The Iraq venture was an aggressive corporate take-over; just like in business. Big bully company crushes smaller company, buys-out smaller company on pennies for the dollar, pink-slips smaller company's workers, massively overhauls the very infrastruction of smaller company, and gets all of smaller company's clients, resources, etc. The only distinction between what massive corporations do and the ordeal in Iraq is the overt (vs covert) violence.

What's so frightening and upsetting to me personally is that the whole Iraq deal is NOT incoherent. I wouldn't be so disturbed if this mess truly were the result of incompetence and stupidity. Incompetence I can handle, because the results are unintentional. What horrifies me about the state of this country--in every area--is that it was all intentional. The destruction of Iraq, the loss of life, the violence, the agony--this was all intentional. This is the brutal Truth that we must all face; this is the Truth that we must make known to the general public. Only when we, as a people, acknowledge and admit this Truth, can we even start to reclaim this country.

The people running the country are monsters, in the true sense of the word. Ghosts are spirit without form; monsters are form without spirit. These people have no soul. They are not completely Human. They've confused and disoriented the people of this country. We can help guide people out of the fog by calling these "people" for what they truly are.

[Olney Blue]

6. The though of another Republican presidency is frightening.

[diane in sf]

7. Another Republican presidency and I'm leaving for as far away as possible--

because it would only come about thru massive vote stealing and even worse, Democratic denial of Repug vote stealing and failure to take preventative measures now.