Why does Bush go "Let's irritate our allies" all the time?

[Swede]

No contracts to Russia,Germany blah blah blah. Twenty billion dollars is small potatoes to the huge economies of these countries. But it does piss them off at a time when Bush wants there help at the same time.

[DinahMoeHum]

1. Methinks we can take a tip from Molly Ivins here. . .

"It's not that he's mean. It's just that when it comes to seeing how his policies affect people, George W. Bush doesn't have a clue. "

Link:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/11/ma_559_01.html


:evilfrown:

[PSU84]

2. Because he is profoundly ignorant.

And he's proud of his ignorance.

[library_max]

5. Alas, there's a lot of that going around.

It's one of the main factors that's been changing American politics in the last few decades.

[RPG-7]

3. It plays well with his nasty little thug fans

In case you haven't figured this out if he can get a bump and a few high-fives from Limbaugh over thumbing his nose at all those cheese-eaters in the other hemisphere he could care completely less what impact it has on this country or anyone else. It's all about him.

[NewGuy]

4. I think it is both intentional and shrewd

Bush knows this will piss of the French and the Germans. However, at the same time it kind of amuses the rest of the EU and Bush's supporters. Also, if he had allowed them to bid and perhaps have been the succesful bidder on large projects, he would have been beat up by both left and right. This way he gets beat only by the left, who are so busy beating him for everything he can shrug it off as more partisan ill will.

Also, this will make the Germans and the French consider their future actions.

[trogdor]

6. You mean, like applying for statehood?

This is Bush being a bully on our behalf, that's all.

[library_max]

7. "Consider their future actions"?

You mean make them toe the U.S. line or else? Doesn't it matter that they were right and we were wrong?

[RPG-7]

9. I can think of a few actions they may reconsider..

Like making a truce with Islamic factions in their countries and looking the other way instead of spending their own resources investigating terrorists for our benefit.

[tom_paine]

8. Because Emperors and other unelected tyrants don;t have to worry

about ANYTHING. Not what other nations think of them, not what their Subjects think of them...

The Busheviks are behaving as if the 2004 "election" is as rigged as a Saddam Hussein "election" and with a foregone outcome.

I'm not so sure I don;t believe them.

[PSU84]

10. By the way,

Is anyone else bothered that Dr. Strangelove - sorry, I mean Donald Rumsfeld - and that vile little pig wolfowitz are deciding who will rebuild Iraq? I mean, I know this is a crazy idea, but shouldn't IRAQIS decide that? WTF?

[Maine-i-acs]

11. Read the PNAC agenda for answers.

Not allowing any international agency to rise to the prominence of the PNAC fascist state (formerly USA) was a major goal. Shrub is just following the script.

[TahitiNut]

12. Consistent with the global neofascist/corporatist agenda.

It's crony corporatism on a glabal scale, imho ... leveraging the economic clout of those global corporatists to coerce other nations. It's as reprehensible as the old-time massing of troops on their borders, imho. (It's the ol' "might makes right" corruption that pervades the PNAC attitude.)