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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (3749)	1/25/2003 11:46:56 PM
From: PartyTime	Respond to of 25898

Good point, Ray. If he ignores the calls of virtually all of the world's leaders, what do you think his future meetings with them will be like? Me thinks 'tis bad when our president gets taken off the party list!

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (3749)	1/26/2003 12:13:19 AM
From: PartyTime	Respond to of 25898

What Iran thinks: hindustantimes.com

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (3749)	1/26/2003 12:52:50 AM
From: Just_Observing	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

Re: GWB is playing with fire. His brinksmanship and arrogance is the main worry Actually there's a lot to worry about Dubya. This is the latest information that we have about him: GEORGE Bush is bad-tempered, ignorant and desperate for approval from his mother, according to an extraordinary new book. His former speechwriter David Frum, a Canadian right-winger who coined the infamous phrase "axis of evil", paints a disturbing picture of a president and his White House. And in curious parallels with his arch enemy Saddam Hussein, the world's most powerful man comes across as confused, tightly wound, prone to mood swings and obsessed with petty detail. "He is often uncurious and as a result ill-informed," says Frum, whose description of Iraq, Iran and North Korea set the administration agenda after September 11. And he discloses: "Bush had a poor memory for facts and figures." The book - The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush - is the first insider account of the Bush regime and reveals how the White House is run on strict, almost military lines, a so-called "culture of evangelism". When Frum joined the president's staff he discovered "this was a White House where attendance at Bible study was, if not compulsory, not quite uncompulsory". He reveals that Bush, "an intense Christian", credits God with keeping him off the booze and that cabinet meetings routinely begin with a prayer. Shortly after the September 11 attacks, the president summoned five religious leaders - three Christian, one Muslim and one Jewish - to the Oval Office and asked them to pray for him. Then he offered this confession: "You know, I had a drinking problem. Right now I should be in a bar in Texas, not the Oval Office. (Amen) "There is only one reason that I am in the Oval Office and not in a bar. I found faith. I found God. I am here because of the power of prayer." Frum, 42, repeatedly mentions how Bush and various aides are constantly thanking God, beseeching God's help and urging others to pray on their behalf. It mirrors Saddam's habit of regularly referencing Allah in his every action and speech. Bush aides may not drink, swear or smoke, and late-night fast food is forbidden. Even a mild 'damn it' is frowned upon. In a series of Saddam-style dictats, men must wear blue or grey suits and women must try to avoid brightly coloured clothes. The president, who likes to be in bed by 10.30pm, is also obsessed about saving electricity, often walking around the White House turning off lights. Frum jokes: "The television show The West Wing might as well have been set aboard a Klingon starship for all it resembled life inside the Bush White House." He goes on: "In private, Bush was not the easy, genial man he was in public. Close up, one saw a man keeping a tight grip on himself. Bush was a sharp exception to the White House code of niceness. He was tart, not sweet." The speechwriter reveals the president's private views are extreme and boorish. Bush describes al-Qaeda as "a bunch of nuts" and environmentalists are "green-green- lima-beans." Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is "thuggish". And he would often say sarcastically of Europeans: "They just lurve Arafat." Frum also reveals: "Bush had a much more strained relationship with his mother than is often acknowledged. Barbara can be a difficult-to-please woman. "Bush married a woman as unlike his mother as possible. His wife was his mother antidote." mirror.co.uk The portrait of a tightly-wound sour man with extreme and boorish views is very disturbing. And this coming from Bush's own speechwriter is likely more flattering than the truth (no need to enrage a boorish president who has at least two more years in office). No wonder the Europeans, who lurve Arafat, are concerned. "I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy." GW —Redwood, Calif., Sept. 27, 2000 GW's foreign policy is so alien to rationality that this is one promise that he has kept.