Whenever former VP Dick Cheney criticizes President Obama’s foreign policies, he comes across like a condemned man pleading for political absolution; no time more so than with respect to Iraq.
Never mind that his criticisms are invariably about as credible as those of an arsonist criticizing the way firemen are putting out the inferno he ignited.
By contrast, nothing became the Bush presidency quite like George W. flying off into the sunset:
I don’t think it’s good for the country to have a former president undermine a current president; I think it’s bad for the presidency for that matter.
(Washington Times, November 16, 2014)
His commendable silence has seemed a form of penance for the mortal sin of his presidency, namely the invasion of Iraq. Maintaining it augured well for his political absolution … someday.
Not to mention reports that this silence was also Bush’s way of disassociating himself from the fiendishly unrepentant Cheney. They are reportedly no longer on speaking terms because Bush blames Cheney for misleading/goading him (Iago-like) into committing that mortal sin.
This is why it seems an act of incomprehensible recidivism (aka backsliding) for Bush to begin hurling monkey-see-monkey-do criticisms at Obama too.
Former President George W. Bush has delivered an unusual attack on President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, arguing that Obama has demonstrated naiveté and bad judgment.
Bush, addressing Jewish Republican donors in Las Vegas Saturday night, said the United States needs to show it can keep its promises and he argued against lifting sanctions against Iran at this time.
(U.S. News & World Report, April 27, 2015)
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. It speaks volumes, though, that – even in his post-presidency – Bush seems unable to resist pandering to Zionist Jews and evangelical Christians. I’ll spare you my sermon on the “biblical” alliance between these two polarizing religious sects. Suffice it to consider the condescension/bigotry inherent in these Christians deeming it an article of their faith – not only to protect Jews (whom they hail as “God’s chosen people”), but also to convert them to Christianity to ensure they make it into Heaven.
Never mind the contradiction inherent in God needing self-professed evangelicals to convert his chosen people for his rapture….
In any event, the irony seems completely lost on Bush that, in criticizing Obama’s policies on Iran, he’s jumping in front of a warmongering parade composed of:
…the same coalition of crusading dunces (namely Jewish Zionists, Christian fundamentalists, and new-world-order neo-cons) who goaded Bush into invading Iraq.
(“Obama Dissing Israeli PM Netanyahu?” The iPINIONS Journal, September 12, 2012)
Indeed, as if to remind us what a gullible political dunce he was (and still is), Bush decided to weigh in on Iran when most sane people were commemorating the twelfth anniversary of his infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech on Iraq.
After all, in the years following that cruelly premature and misleading speech (on May 1, 2003):
- 149,053 civilians were killed, compared to about 7,412 prior to the speech;
- 4,637 coalition troops were killed, versus 172 prior; and
- $758 billion was wasted, versus $57 billion prior.
The figures above are courtesy of a Huffington Post report headlined, “‘Mission Accomplished’ Was 12 Years Ago Today,” on May 1, 2015. But, given what he accomplished in Iraq, it’s sad that Bush does not have enough sense to appreciate that he’s the last person on earth who should be advising Obama on Iran.
I urge him to crawl back into his post-presidency hole to continue the penance of silence that was serving him so well; if not for his own sake, then for his brother Jeb’s.
Jeb, of course, is running to be elected president in 2016. Ironically, I suspect he’s doing so in a vain attempt to redeem the family name George W. tarnished so irreparably.
Related commentaries:
Obama dissing Israeli PM…
Obama’s Iago…
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