So Bush's stalling on Lebanon is a win for Hezbollah

Back to Kevin Drum again. He reports from the Guardian that our Arab allies are being squeezed by Bush's refusal to act to bring about a ceasefire, so they are having to shift to support of Hezbollah for domestic reasons.

Bush's reaction?


There is also a transcript here.

Short version of Bush's meandering statement -

'The terrorists have an evil ideology, and we counter it with the good ideology of Freedom and Democracy. Since our good ideology trumps their evil ideology, the only way we can lose it to quit before we win, so I will not quit and I will not change course.'

[This is my translation of what he said. He adds a great deal of irrelevant items to obfuscate what he is really saying.]

I wouldn't be so disturbed by this if I thought that Bush had a clue about what a good, working definition of "Freedom", "Democracy", "Fundamentalist Islamic ideology", or even just any ideology was. Or how blowing the hell out of Hamas, Lebanon and Iraq will change anything to make things more favorable for Israel, the U.S. or the Middle East in general. He is totally clueless.

Essentially Bush has the grandious fantasy that he is "Good", that anyone who opposes him is "Evil", and that God will inspire him to do what is needed to "Win." No need for analysis, no need to cater to weak kneed allies, and no need to listen to nay-sayers. America will win because God and Bush is on its' side, and there is no need of concern since God will make sure it works.

Are you frightened yet?

I am. This idiot has his finger on the nuclear trigger. Which Dick Cheney, his principle foreign policy and military advisor considers underused. Any strategy that comes out of the White House is what occurs when more analytical and verbal individuals around Bush take his inspired decisions and put them into more practical action-oriented instructions to the government and the military. But the extreme disconnection with reality is still at the core of the whole package.

Right now Bush is still restrained by people around him who say that some things he proposes will cost Republican seats in the November 2006 elections. Once those elections are over, Bush is a total lame-duck, and he is unrestrained by anything political. And domestic political restraints are the only things he has ever been restricted by. I suspect that this has been because Karl Rove still has a great deal of influence on him. After November 8th, Bush is not going to feel restrained by anything.

The results are described in this Newsweek article.

The real bottom line: Hizbullah is winning.