Mice Roared, Lion Squeaked
GW Bush with the Evil Ones at the UN Sock-Hop

Seems our President has negative issues develop every time he personally plops himself into a foreign or international environment. His recent UN week is a case in point. As usual he was turned into a piñata, this time by a Latino and a Persian.

Other than the pro forma requirement to attend the annual Mount Olympus of world leaders at the UN, there was no cogent reason for Bush to participate. His stock among the majority of Third Worlders was at rock bottom, most of whom just had been juiced up a few days previously at an anti-American 3rd World conference in Castro's Havana... On top of this, this same group was still smarting over the American/Israeli war in Lebanon and the US bloody war in Iraq. It could have been worse. Where Bush was only mocked and criticized, the premier of Thailand lost his job during the same time by coup d’ètat. Our president, a product of a different type of democracy, had no fear to have his power seized by opposition. As a matter of fact, his Democratic Party opposition is like Hamlet, undergoing an identity problem: TO BE OR NOT TO BE A POLITICAL PARTY. On Sunday during an interview with Clinton on Fox network, Clinton broke cover and finally strongly and angrily responded to Bush Administration’s criticism of his pursuit of bin Laden during his term. Democrats may still find their spine; ironically, Bill Clinton shall lead them.

Bush had to know his UN appearance was like walking into a shooting gallery, standing in front of the tin duck targets. Most ludicrously, his staff had to walk point in the UN corridors to avoid a chance encounter with the Persian leader... The Persian apparently was unafraid to stand next to Bush at a urinal, but for Bush this was unacceptable and he took extreme measures to avoid such a compromising incident. Tough Texan!! Could you imagine LBJ or John Connally making way for anybody at the UN? Both Texans would have been eager to challenge the pee wee Persian to a pissing contest – not only just figuratively. As for Bush, let us call him a Drug Store Texan.

Bush's UN speech was not memorable. He used the moment to talk to the Iranian people, going over the head of their leadership to encourage them to fight for their freedom and utopian democracy. His false impression, that the the Iranian people love Hershey bars, rock music and jazzy outfits more than their country, is typical neocon baloney that got him into big trouble in Iraq. The Iranians want to go nuclear and my best reading is that this is a national aspiration, not just the notion of crackpot ayatollahs. The Europeans and Chinese understand this, but GWB does not... Bush's speech had to be aimed at a gullible American public, for very few Iranians heard it and others in the world stopped listening to Bush long ago. If Bush wanted attention and progress toward peace, the subject should have been Iraq. He could have talked about time tables for ending US occupation, and promise the US would not permanently garrison Iraq.

The Iranian premier made the best of his visit to promote his viewpoint. He not only gave a well structured speech at the UN, but nimbly hopped around the networks and spoke effectively to different important US interest groups. And he blunted most sophist journalist questions with aplomb. For a guy peddling “there was no holocaust and Israel must be destroyed”, he did surprisingly well in NYC. His only stone wall came at Columbia University, where he was invited and than effectively uninvited. Well, what does that say about academic freedom at Columbia? This is the first I had seen Ahmadinejad in action without a TV production filter or over and counterbalanced by frenetic opposite viewpoints. He is an intelligent, confident adversary for GW Bush, and it was obvious why Bush refuses to go mano a mano with him. The best point he scored against Bush was mentioning that he sent a letter to Bush that was never answered – made it appear that Bush was not interested in a peaceful solution to the problems between the US and Iran. Said he liked Jews and that Iran was not seeking a nuclear weapon. Folks, do not believe him; remember he comes from long line of oriental rug dealers and only fools trust a rug dealer. Whatever the US does in Iran, this man should not be underestimated. He is not Saddam and Iran is not Iraq.

Hugo Chavez came to town energized by a heroic welcome at the Third World Conference recently in Havana. Chavez is a ruthless street fighter that has been mentored by Fidel Castro, and by my reckoning, he has been a good pupil. He is a primitive Marxist who loves dialectical confrontation, both physically and intellectually. If you throw him to the mat, he will come raging back. He fancies himself as the second coming of Simon Bolivar, an unsuccessful uniter of all Latinos. He has gobs of oil money to throw around which, with Fidel's experienced direction, makes him a grave danger to US interests. Fidel makes the bullets and Hugo shoots them. He recently, along with Iranians, put all sales of Venezuelan oil in Euros so that if US currency goes down, oil cost to the US goes up. He provides roughly 14% of the oil to the US and the US pays him an extra premium on every barrel. Bush could have moved against him in 2002 when he was weakened domestically, but Bush had other priorities.

Wearing a Socialist blazing red shirt, Chavez viciously attacked Bush ad hominem from the UN dais in the General Assembly. It was more of a disjointed rant than a speech. Crossing himself, he called Bush a devil, noted the stench of sulfur where Bush had stood, mocked Bush's strut and mental health, and castigated US foreign policy. You probably can call born-again Bush anything but a devil without penetrating his political skin, so this hectoring probably got to him... Chavez was using the vindictive model Bush used against Saddam in his personal attack. While all these verbal fireworks were exploding, Chavez waved a paper-bound work of Noam Chomsky's book, HEGEMONY OR SURVIVAL: AMERICA'S QUEST FOR GLOBAL DOMINATION. He told the American people they should read this book rather than watch superman. Uncertain of the impact of Hugo's speech on his policy goals, but he boosted sales of Chomsky’s book from number 160,772 on Amazon to number 7 overnight. A new printing of 25,000 copies has been ordered.

Afterwards, Chavez went to Harlem, where he held a foot stomping, handkerchief waving, anti-Bush rally. This even bothered Congressman Rangel, stridently anti-Bush, who sought to distance himself publicly from the event in his district. Minority congressional leader Pelosi also condemned Chavez's remarks as over the top. Chavez was playing to the third world; he did not give a rip what the US said or did. He wants the UN General Assembly to vote for Venezuela for a rotating seat on the Security Council over the US sponsored Guatemala. This bare knuckle approach may work in the third world where the US is unpopular – but in the end, it will take bribes with petrol dollars or US dollars to entice the voters in the UN General Assembly. The finale of this black comedy with Chavez played out at Kennedy Airport a few days afterward when the Venezuelan foreign minister with a diplomatic passport was detained by US airport security officials for over an hour. UN and US apologized, but Chavez remains outraged. Suggest Condoleezza not visit Caracas for a while unless she is prepared to be detained at a hot tropical airport in a windowless room without air-conditioning.

The week at the UN was a nightmare for Bush. His Administration's spin is the country rallied around victim Bush as he was punched by the foreign evil doers on his own turf. His spin machine even speciously argued that the criticism stemmed from internal US criticism of Bush and that foreign critics were emboldened for this reason. Problem for Bush is that a self-righteous, badly fought war of choice based on misleading information is bound to generate internal dissent in a democracy. The fact is the week demonstrated Bush's weakness outside the bubble of the White House, staged fund raisers and military audiences. The phenomenon of Chomsky's book sales, a solid indicator of successful message penetration, should scare the hell out the Bush camp – or maybe not – most people who support Bush seldom read anything but the Bible. Colonel Robert E Bartos USA RET