The really worrying thing about Bush's end-of-office comments is that his speeches are written by White House bureaucrats.Dubbya hasnt a brain in his head to say anything and now it seems there are people behind the scenes who arent much better and who are making enough problems for the new President and his people to undo.
How are they going to do it?What can they say to undo the harm Bush is doing?
Besides calling the man an idiot in the wrong place?But the world already knows that!What else can be said and done to mend fences?
Dunno...and I dont think anyone coming after Bush does either.
It is a worry.

socratease

Many thanks, Dr Mcqueen, at last our Online is again having a comment from an academic, one practised from an area whose job it is to find out where the real problems in today's Middle East do lie.

Certainly George W' has made things much worse through his Iraq intrusion now over five years ago - his close mates Blair and Howard now out of the picture.

Many of our commentators would do well to remember that our universities are part of a democratic system and not of an autocratic regime.

Certainly most of the concern is about our group's support for not only illegal actions such as the occupation of Iraq, but also the deliberate eye-shutting and mind-shutting about letting little Israel go militarily nuclear, virtually doing the job in the Middle East of what a true Kantian-style global UN should be doing.

"Little Israel going nuclear" may well be the only thing that saves it from its neigbours.

I'm surprised a "Post-Doctoral Fellow" doesn't know the difference between "bazaar" and "bizarre".

Am I missing something or are academics supposed to be immume from having to look at positives before they write their negative opinion pieces?

All indications are that violence in Iraq has abated to the point where commerce and an economy is actually starting to work, the elected, elected mind you, government is starting to find some coherence, where idiots like al qaeda and that mad mardi army mufti are utterly defeated, where Iran and Syria are now actually stopping insurgents sneaking into Iraq, where US Generals are saying positive things and are actually talking serious troop reduction, where the Iraqi army actually does as directed by the Iraqi Government, and probably more importantly and significantly where the Western media and commentators are no longer finding negatives except of course the outdated and generalised patently false and misleading statements such as:
'However, with the stalling of the initiative in Iraq ...' ie 'the active spreading or promotion of democracy throughout the Middle East'

Did this academic miss the peaceful, mind you peaceful, endorsement of a President in Lebanon?
Did this academic miss the start of peace settlement talks between Syria and Israel?
Did this academic miss the change in political effort and outlook in Syria?

Why did this academic have to colour his opinion in good 'ole George Bush hatred and all the negatives he could find?

Oh and has he in his coccoon of denial and hatred missed the subtle change in the treatment of an undefeated and defiant Hamas, the elected Government of the Palestinians.

Jeez there are a list of incredible changes underway in the mid east but this academic chooses only to focus on all the outdated negatives.

Why, doesn't he want George's legacy to include even his initiating of the now evolving peace processes?

How bloody miserable!

Keith, I am wondering where you are getting your information. Even in the U.S. the Bush approval rating is down to 28%, the lowest rating of a President in our history. Apart from the outrageous profits that Bush has been able to attain for his oil buddies, he has little to hang his hat on. He has no understanding of history and little appreciation of other cultures.

Pleasingly it is people like KEITH in OLO who can see through the fraudulent, antiquarian, and full of hatred contentions of Dr. MacQueen against the Bush administration. MacQueen in parading all the past negatives he deliberately misses and does not acknowledge the present positives that have issued since the new Bush strategy of the Surge implemented by the capable and savant-general Petraeus. The chances are that these positives will serve as the foundation stone upon which a democratic Iraq could arise and in turn would serve as an example for the rest of the people of the Middle East to imitate.

As I predicted in a paper of mine on December 2006, the year 2007 would be the Annus Mirabilis for Bush, in regards to Iraq.

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