Wolcott: "Teen Titans" (Bush and Blair giddy as schoolboys)

[Inland]

http://jameswolcott.com/



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At their vainglorious peak of heroic posturing, Bush and Blair struck a Churchillian cathedral chord of resolve and vision amid the gathering thunder. Bush brought America's military might to the partnership; Blair, the rhetorical eloquence. Or to paraphrase David Hare, Bush supplied the muscle, Blair the bullshit.

Apparently those closer to the dynamic duo drew a different impression of the post-millennial messiahs. Larry C. Johnson's No Quarter introduces us to Philippe Sands, an international lawyer and professor of law, who analyzes the minutes of the notorious meeting of 1/31/03 between Bush and Blair when Bush suggested flying a US plan in United Nations colors and markings over Iraq to goad Saddam Hussein into firing at it and thus supplying the causus belli for war. A war Bush and Blair were determined to wage, WMDs or no WMDs, UN mandate or no UN mandate. Upclose, the two world leaders revealed themselves to be a pair of shrunken heads unable to control their hormonal surges.

"'The war was policy-making on the hoof,' says Sands. 'Others who know the prime minister well have shared with me that he has a limited sense of history and poor attention to detail. He and Bush do not come across as international statesmen. *Rather, they appear as teenagers, caught up in a childlike excitement about being at the centre of power.* Blair might need to be careful where he travels when he steps down as prime minister. After the Pinochet precedent, he might face prosecution in some countries for waging an illegal war.'"

Once he leaves office, it's difficult to think of any country Bush will be able to set foot on the tarmac (apart from Saudi Arabia, or Kuwait) where a posse won't be waiting to haul him in for crimes against humanity. As president, his security apparatus can depopulate the streets of London or the Irish countryside to keep protesters unseen and unheard; as ex-president, his imperial desires will be less indulged, his protective bubble considerably shrunken.

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[rodeodance]

1. would be wonderful

....Once he leaves office, it's difficult to think of any country Bush will be able to set foot on the tarmac (apart from Saudi Arabia, or Kuwait) where a posse won't be waiting to haul him in for crimes against humanity.........

[Inland]

4. Bush clears out entire cities to make a point, now.

He'll go into "internal exile" as ex president.

Bush clears out entire cities, in part because it shows his imperial power, in part because it suits him to highlight a personal danger. IOW, he's not in half the danger he pretends to be in, but by golly, people DO hate him. And not al qaeda, who wants to give him a medal.

I heard, I think from Joe Conason, where Clinton was in Africa and just wades into crowds shaking hands with the five secret service guys hanging back. There he is, in countries with civil societies in trouble, and he hasn't a care in the world. I know the last thing Bush II wants is to shake hands with people, but still, it shows something.

Even when he was president, Clinton could give a speech in the middle of Daley Plaza in Chicago with 30,000 strangers and several HUNDRED windows peaking out over a square. Bush doesn't dare, because someone might BOO him. When he isn't president, he isn't going to be able to make big bucks for the Carlylse group flying to some foreign country to lobby.

[tularetom]

2. The last paragraph was right on

Can you imagine what life after the white house will be like for bush? Can you see his opinion as an "elder statesman" being sought out and listened to? As the item points out he won't be able to travel abroad. He really hates that fuckin ranch and all that manly shit they force him to do, so my guess is he won't hang around there. He could build the * presidential library in a phone booth since it only needs to have room for My Pet Goat. My guess is he'll sit around on his ass and drink (if he ain't in jail for crimes and misdemeanors he has committed or just for sheer stupidity).

[Inland]

5. The operative concept is "internal exile".

He'll hole up somewhere, probably Crawford. He might hate the ranch, but where can he have a "safe zone" (not against assassination but against constant protesters and moms of dead military) of fifteen miles?

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Bush doesn't care about international travel, so it's no problem for him

He was infamous for hardly having set foot outside the USA before he ran for president - a teenage trip to Scotland, some jaunts to Mexico, and I think that was it. He has no curiosity about other people, so why should he bother going to meet them, or see how they live?

Blair, on the other hand, does like international travel (for the sun, if nothing else - he tends to holiday in Italy, the south of France, Egypt or the Caribbean). I think he'll spend most of his time in the USA too - conveniently where he won't be arrested for the ICC.

[rfranklin]

3. Exiled on the pig farm in Crawford, clearing brush, and

riding his bike, but eventually the law will catch up with him, just like Poppy's boy Pinochet.