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"Pay close attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Hand over those hands!

In the recent (wonderfully aggressive) interview of George W. Bush by Irish reporter Carol Coleman, the "one who must not be called President" admonished the reporter about what a "brutal dictator" Saddam was. (Duh!):
"Listen, uh, uh, I wish they [the people of Ireland who oppose Bush] could've seen the 7 men that came to see me in the Oval Office. They had their right hands cut off by Saddam Hussein because the currency had devalued when he was the leader, see?" [Emphasis mine] (Partial transcript here)
Bush says this without mumbling at all, as if he had somehow practiced these lines (16:40 into the video) -- or had 3 days' advance warning (go to the 2:44 mark in that one for context) -- before changing the subject when Coleman tried to ask him where those weapons of mass destruction are. He then summons the ghosts of 9/11 once again (see 18:00 - 18:30 of the interview) as justification for attacking Iraq!

Bush (paraphrase of his echolalia):
"Le, le, lemme, lemme finish. Lemme finish. You ask the questions, and I'll [evade] them, if you don't mind!"
That was then. This is now:
But following a recent string of fatal attacks on Iraqi officials by the insurgents, Iraqi Minister of Defense Hazim Shaalan tells Newsweek that "we will hit these people and teach them a good lesson they won't forget. Americans and allied forces have certain restrictions we won't have." He declined to be more specific, except to say, "It's our country, its [sic] our culture and we have different laws than you do." (A few days later, after yet another suicide bombing, he was more blunt: "We will cut off their hands and behead them.") [Emphasis mine]
Say, what?! That's not what "disarm" means, Mr. Bush. It's not what "handover" means either. Oh, well. I do recall talk of decapitation coming from the Bush administration in March of 2003. And they wonder why this shit happens.

Can you say "Lex Talionis"?

Bush (direct quote, 19:48 in):
"I do believe the world is becoming a better place. Absolutely!"
Happy, happy! Joy, joy!

[Edited for clarity, 11:35 PM]
Posted at 2:07 PM by: [Permalink]
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