CNN reports this morning that President Bush was caught off-guard before an open mic at the G-8 summit. In his comments he used an expletive- CNN seems to emphasize this, but does anyone think this is the first President to swear?- and he spoke dismissively of UN Sec. General Kofi Annan's hope for an immediate ceasefire.
CNN seems to be missing the point. It is the second issue is important and disturbing.
According to CNN (article here)-
"What about Kofi Annan?" Bush asked Blair. "I don't like the sequence of it. His attitude is basically cease-fire and everything else happens."
The President is grossly mischaracterizing what Sec. General Annan seeks. He's discussing international forces, for example, to be brought in immediately upon a ceasefire. He's not thinking "everything else happens."
Moving beyond what appears to be narrow-mindedness by the President whenever it comes to the UN, this is terribly disturbing commentary from the President. How can the President of the US, in public or private, be in any way opposed to an immediate ceasefire? Even if the ceasefire is not the end of the problem and does not create a perfect world, how can he oppose it? Does he think that all problems in the "new world of global terror" can be (must be?) resolved through violent military options?
This President demonstrates a major disconnect in this case between a politician's world view and the thinking of an ordinary person. Doesn't he understand how a ceasefire would be in the best interest of the parents in Lebanon and Israel who have had their children killed by bombs and missiles? How can a ceasefire fail to be in the interests of these two nations which have seen more than 200 civilians die in Lebanon and more than 20 on Israel? What sort of mind causes one to oppose an end to violence?
My heart sank when I heard the President's comments this morning.
If his swearing with the cameras rolling were the least of his lapses in judgment, how much better off we'd be.
GP
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Last week my pacifism was challenged by a Christian (Seventh Day Adventist) who said he is re-thinking his conscientious objector status. He has been studying the Bible, and what Jesus says about protecting people. It's easier for us to condemn Israel's attacks on Lebanon than it is to understand what it is like to be a small country in the middle of people who not only hate you but want you destroyed...I don't know what I think.
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