Ill communication

It seemed somewhat rude to return from happy, warm southern deserts to find everybody on the planet buzzing about our plans to monkey-wrench the Iranian nuclear program with various bunker-busters, including some that may be nuke-tipped. It’s time once again to say … if any president ever needed his daily chili positively pounded with saltpeter, it’s this guy.

In an information-drenched world, where proofs of Bushian leadership feebility abound on an almost daily basis, I found the following to be the most succinct corroboration of this view put forth in quite some time. It comes from a discussion Amy Goodman had with New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh on the program “Democracy Now!” Hersh broke the story of Bushco’s plans to put some serious hurt on Iranian nuclear facilities. (For those looking beyond the major networks for news these days, which anyone who wants to be even slightly informed must do, Goodman’s show is essential. Look for it on Channel 16 or on the upper channels of your TV menu if you’re a Dish or Direct subscriber).

Hersh: “What’s amazing, Amy, and what always surprises me about my country is, here we have a president that doesn’t talk to people he disagrees with … Bush doesn’t talk to people he’s mad at. He doesn’t talk to the North Koreans. He didn’t talk to the insurgency. When the history is done, there were incredible efforts by the insurgency leaders in the summer of 2003. I’m talking about the Iraqi insurgency, the former Sunni generals and Sunni and Baathist leaders who were happy to see Saddam go but did not want America there. They wanted to talk to us. Bush wouldn’t. … Nobody wanted to talk to them. He doesn’t talk to the president of Syria; in fact, he specifically rejects overtures from al-Assad to us. And he doesn’t talk to the Iranians. There’s been no bilateral communication at all.

“Iran has come hat-in-hand to us. A former National Security Council adviser who worked in the White House, Flynt Leverett, an ex-C.I.A. analyst who’s now working at Brookings, recently wrote a piece in the New York Times, describing specific offers by the Iranians to come and ‘let’s deal.’ I’m even told they were willing to talk about recognizing Israel. And the White House doesn’t talk. And it’s not just that he doesn’t talk, it’s that nobody pressures him to talk. There’s no pressure from the media, no pressure from Congress. Here’s a president who won’t talk to people he’s walking us into a confrontation with.”

Well. Isn’t that special? A president who won’t talk with those he disagrees with. A president who’d rather lock himself in his room and work on nasty schemes to fuck over his enemies. If you buy into Mr. Hersh’s anecdotes, as I do, then what further proof could you want that this man, who would have his hands full managing a couple of Sizzlers in Lubbock, is hands down, the all-time lamest POS president our country has ever saddled itself with.