George Bush's speech in Israel to help celebrate its 60th Birthday was always going to be something to avoid for those of us who don't buy into the Israel good, Palestine bad argument.
Luckily it received next to no coverage here except from the brief mention that he was there and had slipped in a barely concealed barb at Obama.
Like a fool, i went looking for it and the obvious place to look was the Fox News website and sure enough there it was among the rest of the nonsense the President was spewing.
I had purposely avoided posting on the celebrations of Israels 60th birthday because how could anyone avoid mentioning what they have done to the Palestinians over the last 60 years. Not much to celebrate in that particular part of the Middle East when your new neighbour sets about bulldozing 385 of your 475 towns to build their own settlements on over the past half a century.
Of course Bush never mentioned the Palestinians plight whatsoever and to be honest, i never expected him to - that elephant in the room would stay firmly in the corner out of sight - but he did make the claim that anyone who claims that talking with terrorists will result in peace is experiencing a 'foolish delusion' and this idea had been 'repeatedly discredited by history' and even went as far to compare it with Nazi appeasement.
This fits in with the image Bush likes to portray of being the no-nonsense tough guy who shoots first and asks questions later but to the rest of us it just cements his position of being a warmongering moron.
Talking to your enemy is always preferable to the other option. Nobody has ever died by two leaders physically sitting around a table to sort out their differences. You can't count how many have been killed throughout history by following the crazy Bush doctrine.
We would still be burying our dead from the latest IRA bombs if John Major & then Tony Blair had not held talks with the Irish terrorist group. North Korea would be busy adding to their nuclear arsenal if there had been no talks, Libya were persuaded to surrender their nuclear ambitions when Blair 'reached out the hand of partnership' as he called it. If you can be bothered to look you can find countless other examples.
A glance at any decent history book will show that negotiating with your enemy has been far from repeatedly discredited by history. A glance at the shamefully long list of names on any war memorial will show that it should always, always, always be the preferred option. Hopefully one day the world will be void of people with the pathetic and poisonous mindset of Bush and filled with people who think more like Obama.
13 comments:
Dear Lucy
Not all the Palestinians bad.
The ones who badly injured mother and infant daughter in Ashkelon are extremely bad.Also, people who have one sided view and support them are bad.
Bush is right in supporting Israel
and your views and opinions only support extremists.
London is already full of them.
How quickly you would change your opinions, if you will be a victim of terrorist act.
Lucy, I did a post this morning entitled 'What Bush meant to say to the Knesset.' It better represents what he really thought rather than the pigswill he vomited out!
The comment above mine is typical of the one-eyed view held by most Israelis or their supporters. Shame it doesn't mirror the truth. 6,000 have been killed in the conflict since the year 2,000 and most of them have been Palestinians!
bravo, lucy.
unfortunately, i saw the speech. it was shameful.
Lucy,
Yeah. The Palestinians have needs and rights too - denied for many years.
Q
Well said, Lucy. I didn't hear what Bush said but, to be honest, I probably won't go out of my way to hear it. Two reasons: (1) I pretty much know the sort of bought-and-paid-for stuff that he says even before he says it. And (2) He's a lame-duck fucktard, and I've already given too much time to fucktards already.
Anon - You are right that anyone who has a one sided view is bad so i would never state that i supported the element of Palestine that send rockets into Israel no matter what they do, because i don't and it you are right that it does only support the extremists. The same argument applies to anyone who states they will support Israel, England, America or anywhere else regardless.
I wasn't going to find out what he said either Chesszy for the same reasons you gave but my curiousity about what he said about Obama got the better of me.
Lucy, I disagree with you, as well as with President Bush. Call me Mr. Gray area, but history has proven that in certain situations diplomacy has been fruitless. When sitting down with the IRA, the issue was "occupation" and power sharing. When sitting down with Al- Queda, for example, the whole "we have pledged our lives to the destruction of America" talking point, is not exactly a issue that diplomacy can start with. Unfortunately, in this world, there will always be a clash of opposing viewpoints, we can do our best to lessen it, but we have to accept the fact that some people will never listen to reason (my wife for example)
Diplomacy/appeasement does not work every time, nor does bellicose posturing. True wisdom comes in recognizing when to use either or neither.
not talking to countries we vehemently disagree with is a new angle.it is foolish, ignorant, and insolent. kennedy talked to kruschev, nixon talked to mao, reagan talked to gorbachev. those were world leaders that did not have our best interest in mind, by any stretch of the imagination. communication is key. and we all know what a brilliant communicator bush is.
I agree with you completely annie. To dismiss out of hand that we shouldn't talk to our enemies because 'they won't listen anyway' is a fools argument. Until you try, how can you possibly know?
Uspace - I thought the best thing Bush ever said was:
“Our enemies never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
That did tickle me at the time.
My fave is still probably-
"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
You have to like dark humour to appreciate that one though, I guess. Really really dark.
Zenyenta links to a great MNBC Hardtalk clip: http://zenyenta.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/chris-matthews-doin-it-right
Sit tight and grit your teeth until the end. Classic.
usspace,
Except that Bush's use of the word of 'appeasement' is an example of misleading rhetoric. Anyone who stands by Bush on this doesn't even know what 'appeasement' means. Obama has never said word one about appeasing Iran, only talking to them.
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