George Bush: Idiot or Sociopath?

[dpbrown]

Following is the text of the August 6, 2001 PDB:

Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."

After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a ...(redacted portion) ... service.

An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an ... (redacted portion) ... service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative's access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.

The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.

Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.

Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.

Al-Qa'ida members -- including some who are US citizens -- have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa'ida members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.

A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ... (redacted portion) ... service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar 'Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.
__________________________________________________

There are only two types of people who, having full knowledge that Al Qaeda was in the process of casing New York buildings, recruiting terrorists, and plotting to hijack airplanes and blow things up, would essentially order a "stand down" of US readiness.

An idiot.

Or a sociopath.

There are only two options. Which is it?

Edit: Too many words in choice 2, had to shorten it to fit

[EstimatedProphet]

1. I think he plays the role of an idiot

to disarm his opponents

[mr_hat]

2. Less than an idiot, more than a sociopath.

[sam sarrha]

4. Meglamaniac... but still an idiot.

[dpbrown]

5. That sounds like "more foul and less able"

Do I have that about right?

[mr_hat]

30. That's where I was going, yes. Thank you.

[Atman]

3. Why can't we pick both?

I think he's an idiotic sociopath.

[ashling]

6. I quite agree

They are not mutually exclusive.

[mouse7]

7. agree n/t

[dpbrown]

12. Personally, I don't think he's an idiot at all

I just watched John Dean on C-SPAN talking about his "Worse than Watergate" book, and I think he hit the nail on the head - Bush likes being "head of state" but he's just not "interested" in the nuts-and-bolts, that's what Cheney's for - the "co-(p)resident."

Bush has shown great skill over the years in being able to thrive on chaos, sliming opponents, dividing people over petty issues, and acting like the two-bit emperor he thinks is his birthright.

I think Bush is far more dangerous than the people who want to give him credit by absolving him of responsibility because he's an idiot. Nevertheless, knowing what we know now about the August 6, 2001 PDB, there are really only two choices, because almost every person in the world with a shred of humanity and decency would have acted on the jarring revelations in that PDB.

Bush, however, did not.

And given what he knew, and when he knew it, for him to make himself "unavailable" for an hour during an attack on the United States, by continuing to read a children's book in Florida, instead of ordering NORAD to aggressively respond, makes him even more culpable in my book.

DPB

[Lindsay]

8. I was listening to John Dean

on C-Span the other day (I think it was...he's been everywhere lately, thank goodness) talking about what Bush* is like in person. He is good at portraying that affable fella you'd want to have a beer with (reminds me of why I don't drink much!), although he doesn't really enjoy playing that role. Behind the scenes, he's intelligent but not interested in much besides sports. And he's capable of being extremely mean and nasty.

Made me think of one of the things I know about sociopaths, which is that they don't have the same emotions that most people do...but the successful ones learn to imitate those who do have feelings. So he's apparently learned how to be all jolly...but he really hasn't a clue as to when that's appropriate. (Cf the WMD jokes the other week.)

So yeah, sociopath gets my vote. Along with narcissistic personality disorder.

What amazes me is that there are apparently so many with the same disorders in the (mal)administration. Must be some interesting questions on the job application forms.

[dpbrown]

13. Looks like we were thinking along the same lines

I was writing my response above at the same time you were writing this one.

Looks like minds that are not George Bush minds think alike...

[davekriss]

9. Idiotic Sociopath

Personally I think he is an idiotic sociopath, but heh that's just me...

[ramapo]

10. Yep that's right

I vote with Dave for option 3...idiotic sociopath

[buycitgo]

11. compensative psychopath, as someone else pointed out

check THIS

big laughs

http://www.geocities.com/battlefn/Page3.htm

[opihimoimoi]

14. Add EVIL to the description

To allow people to die for ones own interest is EVIL

[buycitgo]

15. "evil" is a copout....a value judgment

the results of his actions can be characterized as "evil"

I spose

but, to me, desribing one as evil is the same as pointing out that they have cancer, or something: a way of avoiding responsibility

can one choose to be evil?

[opihimoimoi]

16. In my book, evil is when a person knowingly allows great harm to occur

Bush is evil, he masks his actions with "goody two shoes" but the evidence speaks otherwise,

[dpbrown]

17. Bush doesn't care what's right and wrong, as long as he gets what he wants

He stuck firecrackers up frogs' butts to watch them explode as a child, and oversaw the highest number of executions by a Texas governor in history.

His "fortunate son" sentiment that it's his "birthright" to be a ruler makes him, in his mind, unbound by normal mores and customs. We can see that every day when he dismisses the relevance of world opinion.

Bush is a sociopath, in my opinion, who will do and say anything to get what he wants, no matter the cost to anyone else. He thought an attack on the US would be good for him personally, and that's all that mattered in his decision to accord less attention to preventing that attack.

John O'Neill, however, took it seriously enough to go to work at the WTC as head of security - fat lot of good it did him and the folks inside, but at least he did what he could given the clear information that was also available to Bush and Rice at the same time.

When is Gary Hart going to be asked to talk to the Commission?

[sam sarrha]

26. thank u for the spyware..... i needed that

[proud patriot]

18. I pick that he is Both

:hi:

[TahitiNut]

23. 'Idiot' is hyperbole; 'sociopath' isn't.

While I agree he's a pathological narcissist (a sociopath), and I agree he's intellectually indolent (not an idiot) to an appalling degree, I don't agree he's at all in control of the Exective Branch or the WHite House. His pathological narcissism makes him controllable - that's the puppet's strings. He's also agreeable to the sociopathic behavior of those who're managing him. Cheney is every bit as much of a sociopath, and maybe moreso. (His, however, is more akin to megalomania or Antisocial Personality Disorder.)

[ButterflyBlood]

19. idiot controlled by sociopaths

Rove is brainy evil one.

[Snoggera]

20. add something to idiot and sociopath and

you've got a trifecta!

[Algorem]

21. Neither.Not stupid.Not insane.A cold-blooded con-man plenty smart e-

nough to know exactly what he's doing.Therefore he is responsible for all the crimes he has committed.

[cryofan]

22. Bush is a product of family environment of corporate predators

He is the scion of not only a large familiy of corporate predators, but also a very large extended quasi-familiy of extremely well connected corporate predators.

[Kanary]

24. I decided long ago that he crossed the line into psychopathology

He's a classic study.

Makes ya feel good he was elected to the highest office, eh?

Kanary

[Cleita]

25. He's definitely a sociopath.

He can fool people by being engaging and charming, but he doesn't give a rat's ass who or what he hurts in his path. He is also and idiot, way in over his head, but you didn't give that third choice.

[cheezus]

27. A little from column A, a little from column B

[gpandas]

28. both nt

[frank frankly]

29. can't it be both

:shrug:

[Atlanticist]

31. He's clearly an idiot

have you heard him speak - he can't string a coherent sentence together which is why he is never allowed to front press conferences - can you imagine how pitiful he'd be. He'd rather fish that be on top of a brief. The man's been described by a fellow-cabinet member as "incurious". If that isn't a polite way of calling him an idiot, I don't know what is.

I have Wolfowitz and Cheney down as the sociopaths (the jury's out on Rummy) - Bush is just the front-man. Keep him out of the way fishing in Texas, and we'll sent the Middle East to hell in a handbasket and all that other PNAC junk.

[mitchum]

32. Both...

and also a sissy

[dpbrown]

33. I think he can't be both

Idiot excludes sociopath. Sociopath means he's clever enough to do cruel things knowing that they're cruel, but he does them because he himself will gain. Idiot, in my opinion, is the guise he puts on himself to get away with being extra-sociopathic.

That's my opinion, anyway.

DPB