Pretext for an even greater mass murder

I give you your King, George W. Bush:

"I -- you know, I -- I believe this; I believe that -- that, as Condi said yesterday, the Middle East is littered with, you know, agreements that just didn't work. And now's the time to address the root cause of the problem, and the root cause of the problem is terrorist groups trying to stop the advance of democracies. Hizbollah attacked Israel. I believe Hizbollah -- I know Hizbollah is connected to Iran. And now's the time for the world to confront this danger.

I wonder what that means...

Also: Here's more audio (Real Player) from USA Today from that same press statement. This piece is so riddled with nonsense that it just boggles the mind. For instance:

"I understand that whatever's done diplomatically must address the root cause and the root cause is terrorist activity."

The root cause is terrorist activity? What causes the terrorist activity, dip!sht? Is it your contention that people blow themselves up on a lark? Out of boredom? You don't suppose they might have a grievance of some sort, do you? "The root cause is terrorist activity." Incredible. As I've said earlier, the first suicide bombing was done in response to exactly the kind of thing that is being done to Lebanon today. Could he possibly be more idiotic than this? As you will soon see, yes.

One of the things I've said from the beginning is that it's important for the Lebanese democracy to survive and to become strong. So what you're watching is American policy...

There you have it. "What you're watching is American policy." He didn't say "Israeli policy" did he? You can't get more difinitive than that, folks.

"...aiming to strengthen Lebanese democracy so that we can have peace."

By bombing it to smithereens. The inferences embedded in such statement can summed up thusly:

• "Annihilation is strength."
• "'Around-the-clock bombing is peace."
• "Ceasefire is to be feared."
  

We are one "Freedom is slavery" away from a full deck.

"I view this as a clash of forms of government."

Lebanese democracy vs US/Israeli imperialism/zionism. Clash of Civilizations, anyone?

"I see people who can't stand the thought of democracy taking hold... in part of the... in-i'-i'-i'--in the middle east. And as democracy begins to advance they use terrorist tactics to stop it."

These people who supposedly can't stand the thought of democracy taking hold are, it's safe to assume, Hezbollah and Hamas. Hezbollah is a political party in Lebanon that participates actively and legally in the very same Lebanese democracy that this man was praising just a few months ago. They hold roughly 10% of the parliamentary seats in the democracy that must be saved (through annihilation). Hamas, for their part, participated in the democratic elections that this man called for in the Palestinian Authority. They won the election fair and square. They backed away from their denial of Israel's right to exist and were rewarded with an international sanction and blockade, bomb attacks and their cabinet and legislative officials rounded up, imprisoned and/or threatened with death. So who is it who can't stand democracy exactly?

"...So our objective is to make sure those who use terrorist tactics are not rewarded and at the same time, help those who've suffered."

And he's helping those who've suffered by doing what, exactly? By fighting any imposition of a ceasefire that might, oh I don't know, stop the bombing that's killing them?

I want you all to think about the kind of contempt for the audience that is required to enable someone to spit this kind of nonsense into a microphone. Think about the apocalyptic mindset one would have to have in order to conceive of a total annihilation like the one taking place in Lebanon as a "birth pang of the new middle-east", as it was recently described by Condoleeza Rice, or as a saving grace of Lebanese democracy as Bush presents it here. If these are the people steering the ship, you best believe they're looking out for icebergs, but not in order to avoid them. Don't believe for one second that this fool is above dropping a nuke on Iran.