New and Old Odds and Ends, Part Three

Just before going to bed last night, I took time to catch up with my issues of the San Francisco Chronicle, and there IT was again, a picture of Bush practicing the carefully honed gambit of Bush as the guest guiding another world leader on hs own turf. (I had to take sleeping pills to get even a fitful night’s sleep.) In this case it was Putin, and the photo shows Bush with his arm across Putin’s back midway between the shoulders and the waist as they leave a press conference. This technique is known as the “World Leader Assist,” and if need be, it will be followed by a similar gesture known as the “And Don’t Forget It.”

A similar photo op found Bush in Australia, where he and Prime Minister Howard left a press conference, with guest Bush walking a step ahead of his host. In this case, I couldn’t see the Prime Minister’s back, but Bush’s left arm was graciously extended forward to indicate to the Prime Minister the path which they should take.

Have you ever had someone (other than a lover) put his or her arm around your back without feeling a shudder of revulsion and the desire to say, “get your goddam hands off of me?” Why didn’t each man, especially Putin, push Bush’s arm away and tell him they knew where they were going? If Putin had done that, I would have voted for him for president.

On to Iraq. There are increasing calls for Iraq to pay for its own reconstruction, and the American public, guided by Bush propaganda , apparently is showing support for the call to Iraq to rebuild its own damn country. Am I missing something here? Aren’t we the ones who invaded and bombed the hell out of Iraq so that Bush could make up for his father’s failure there? And didn’t we let loose the Dogs of Hell in the entire area? I’ll bet we’ve buried a whole lot more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein did – if they are even buried. It seems to me that we should be held responsible for the costs, but that we should get the hell out of there, send them the check, and let them run their own country.