Friday, August 18, 2006

Presidential Confusion

No one would suggest that the Israel/Lebanon situation is not confusing, but you would expect a sitting President to be a bit more clear about the situation. Unscripted, George Bush shows us his real feathers, and they seem ruffled to me. Here's the question from one of the privileged few that got to query the President:
Q Mr. President, on Lebanon, how can you say that Hezbollah has suffered such a bad defeat when it's rebuilding -- helping rebuild in southern Lebanon, and it remains intact? And secondly, are you disappointed at all about France's decision to scale back its support of the international force?
It's the last two paragraphs that have me convinced that the president is just as, if not more, confused about the situation as we are. Certainly, if you can figure out what he is trying to say here, you win today's blogger prize for presidential interpretation :
...Hezbollah, they're pretty comfortable there in south Lebanon. They're now going to find themselves not only that which caused the destruction, but they'll find themselves with now a Lebanese army, with U.N. help, making it clear they won't have the safe haven necessary -- that they think is necessary to launch attacks.

The issue is broader than just Hezbollah. The issue is also Syria and Iran, two nations that supported Hezbollah in its attempts to create enough havoc so that -- I guess people feel like they could take political advantage of the situation, we just can't let them do it.
I see. How would you complete the following sentence? The president's remarks offer more evidence that we are "fill-in-the-blank" the "war on terror?"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...


Hezbollah won?

Hezbollah attacked Israel. The war was fought in Lebanon.

Hezbollah fought to hold territory. It was unable to hold territory.