While the rest of the world acknowledges that the misbegotten invasion of Iraq is hampering President Obama’s ability to get support for a military strike against Syria, Fox News seems determined to make Obama the sole villain – and rewrite history in favor of the George W. Bush administration. I’ve written already about Fox using Syria for a Republican Rehabbing of Rumsfeld. Last night, it was George W. Bush’s turn.
Visiting the O’Reilly Factor, conservative Nile Gardiner, of the Heritage Foundation, was full of praise for George W. Bush, condemnation of President Obama and claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “walked all over” Obama at the G20 summit this week. Calling the summit “a rather humiliating day” for Obama, Gardiner accused him of having “instituted a policy of appeasement” toward the Russians. “And where has that gotten the United States today?” Gardiner asked rhetorically.
I don’t know where it has gotten us so far, but Gardiner’s assessment seems a bit extreme. The Christian Science Monitor (no liberal rag) wrote about the summit:
Mr. Obama reportedly got strong backing for his insistence on limited military strikes against Mr. Assad’s regime only from leaders of France, Turkey, Canada, and Britain. But even fewer nations appeared to be fully in Russia’s corner: Basically only China, a fellow veto-holding member of the UN Security Council, is prepared to give the Assad regime the benefit of the doubt on its alleged use of poison gas.
…Putin and Mr. Obama met for about 20 minutes on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg summit Friday to discuss Syria, and the vague official press statements that followed that chat suggested only that their “differences remain” and that “talks will continue” between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry.
In other words, it ain’t over yet. But listening to Gardiner, Obama all but waved a white flag of surrender and personally desecrated the hallowed “professionalism” of Bush:
So far his grand international coalition has Barack Obama and Francois Hollande, the socialist French president. Compare that with President Bush’s 40-country-strong coalition.
…President Bush, I think, was a real professional on the world stage. He wasn’t necessarily greatly loved. He was, though, respected by America’s allies.
…The reality is that President Obama looks awfully weak. He looks like an amateur on the world stage. …He just projects sheer weakness, dithering, indecisiveness. …He’s a bit like a French leader, really, and …that’s why he gets on so well with Francois Hollande, …a clueless French president.
What’s next in the Fox News Revisionist History playbook? Blaming Obama for ruining the Iraq war successes? Oh, wait, they’ve already done that.
There was a moment after 9/11 when the USA had the sympathy of the world, but Bush immediately squandered that good will and turned it completely around by attacking and invading without even probable cause to do so.
Obama’s actions as President have been understandably more cautious and inclusive. That’s not a sign of being “weak” or “an amateur”. That’s a sign of trying to work WITH people around the world to find common solutions and a step away from the arrogance and ignorance of the people who surrounded and advised George W. Bush. We should also note that several members of Bush’s cabinet need to be careful when travelling abroad or they face subpoenas and potential prosecution for their conduct. Are we to believe that people around the world wish to prosecute Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld because they “respect” them?
“And most objective people seem to remember that he got a lot of passes until his infamous skit about the non-existent WMDs. God, did that snap people awake.”
Mark my words: It sure as hell snapped me awake Aria — the instant I saw the video footage of that notorious skit which had some super uppity-crust chickenhawk yuppies yukking it up in the foreground, I ran like lightning to to kitchen sink and UPCHUCKED THREE TIMES!
:^(
You know, kind of like George W Bush did a decade ago.
I know the right-wing is incredibly fond of rewriting history (a standard Soviet activity of which, apparently, the right approved so much they chose to emulate it) but that’s only because they can’t exist in the real world. Pan’s Lost Boys of Neverland were more grown-up than most of the folks on the right.
Preach to the choir, boys.
Nothing demands r-e-s-p-e-c-t more than arrogant incompetence.
As far as I can trace this back, John Bolton started this crap with his now infamous “shoe on the other foot” rant, where he openly flouted that he hoped the Syria controversy could be used to avenge Bush.
Avenge Bush for what?! No one seriously questioned him in the run-up to Iraq, they were afraid of being labeled as traitors for speaking up. It was so softball that it wasn’t even realistic. And most objective people seem to remember that he got a lot of passes until his infamous skit about the non-existent WMDs. God, did that snap people awake.
