Article: Bush's Duck And Cover Tour

"In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end This poison, that he cannot trust a friend." -- Aeschylus Bush is looking for a friend overseas. He's going to meet his junta leader, Maliki, next week in Jordan., but, this week was a total bust. The only recognizable ally he found in Asia was John Howard the Australian prime minister, under fire in his own country for his Iraq stance. The two stood together as Bush declared that Iraq was like Vietnam because he intended to "take a while" ending his combatant-generating occupation. No mention was heard at all from Bush about the lives lost in Vietnam while the leaders back then took their time deciding, ultimately, to pull out and leave the nation-building to the countryfolk whose land we had occupied to put down an ideology. No mention was heard at all from Bush about the lives which have been lost in Iraq while he postures overseas - skipping back to America, and then slipping back out on the road again for Europe. No mention at all of the certain loss of soldiers' lives while he pretends to be searching for a plan for their exit. Bush stopped off in Hawaii at the end of his strange loser-lap around the globe which had culminated in an economic summit overshadowed by his own Congress' unwillingness to give him permission to gift his business interests in Vietnam with the hard-earned contributions of U.S. taxpayers. Bush was in such a hurry to take refuge behind the troops stationed there that he raced ahead of the motorcycle escorts without stopping when two of them crashed their bikes beside the road. "He looked refreshed," the lieutenant governor told reporters. "He looked energized. He looked like a leader should look." In fact, Bush looks like the lame-duck loser that he is. Instead of facing our new Democratic majority like an adult, he's ducking around the world, making 'social' visits to Putin; sightseeing at the lake where he said John McCain was 'saved' by his Vietnam captors; assuring the troops that they're fighting and dying for freedom as they fight and die in defense of the increasingly autocratic Maliki regime. Bush took time out of his duck and cover tour to participate in the hypocrisy of condemning the assassination of Lebanon's Gemeyal along with his raving ideologue at the U.N. Bush and Bolton wasted no time in exploiting the killing to accuse Syria of meddling in Lebanese affairs, all but accusing Syria of the killings. It's an amazing memory lapse which compels the leader of the nation which supplied the weapons Israel used to devastate Lebanon and kill hundreds just months ago, encouraged by the U.S. delay in seeking a cessation of their violence against innocent Lebanese caught in the way of their scattershot reprisals against Hizbollah. We are supposed to believe that Bush cares about the deaths of the soldiers and is truly concerned about the killings of leaders and civilians alike as he relates every instance of violence in which he didn't directly participate, to his contrived 'war on terror'. We're supposed to believe that he cares about the will of the American people - as expressed in the election - as he shows us his ass and turns his back on America, flying away overseas again next week looking for a friend; looking to break bread with his new Iraqi puppet. One of the things they can discuss is what to do with all of the bodies. The UN reported this week that over 3700 Iraqis were killed in October alone, many at the hands of the U.S and Iraqi government-sponsored militias. Thousands more have been locked away in Iraqi prisons, subjected to pernicious tortures which have reached levels higher than those of the regime we deposed. The rest are under siege from the increased occupations in Baghdad and elsewhere, and are bracing for the recommended 20,000 to 30,000 more U.S. troops which the Pentagon is set to recommend for Iraq in their planned escalation of our involvement there. The keystone of the continued occupation is the Bush regime's determination to step up their training of Iraqis to kill other Iraqis. There's a certain poetry in training Iraqis to efficiently continue the example we set with our preemptive, unilateral invasion and occupation; killing the very folks Bush claims to be liberating with indifference and impunity. Bush is looking abroad for friends. Its only fitting that he should seek out folks who are as intent as he is on exploiting the killings in the region to justify even more violence. It's better abroad. Too many folks lining up at home to cut off his killing spree. Spoilsports.