Of all the B.S. that comes out of the Bush administration’s collective mouth, there’s one phrase that deserves the Ultimate Heaping Pile of Crap Award: “Iraq must form a national unity government that governs from the center.”
Good god. This comes from a president who has been one of the most divisive in U.S. history.
He was elected in 2000 by the narrowest of margins, one Supreme Court vote. He was re-elected in 2004 because of 60,000 votes in Ohio that went his way. The Shiites in Iraq, who number about 60% of the population, have a much more valid reason to say “We’ll do things our way.”
Yet Bush shamelessly urges Iraqis to form a national unity government even though his own administration doesn’t tolerate any dissent from the fundamentalist Christian/neocon party line.
His secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, says that the Iraqi government has to govern from the center. Last time I looked, the United States government was tilted way over on the right, notwithstanding the dissatisfaction of a clear majority of citizens with Bush’s policies.
Iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and his cronies probably enjoy a big laugh every time they hear Bush blab on about the necessity of a national unity government that shares power with political and cultural minorities. “When has that ever been seen in the USA since Bush got into office?” I imagine them chortling.
And what’s even more hilarious is to go back into time and remember Bush’s 1999 promise: “I’m a uniter, not a divider.” Hasn’t happened. Not in the slightest, except for a brief moment after 9/11.
If any country desperately needs a national unity government, it’s the United States. Hopefully we’ll get one in 2008.
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