February 3, 2005
SOMETIMES NOTHIN' IS A REAL COOL HAND (via Jim Yates):
A man of his word like it or lump it (Greg Sheridan, 04feb05, The Australian)
Bush's stubbornness - resolve to his admirers, inflexibility and simpleton certitudes to his detractors - is in fact one of his greatest strategic assets.So much of strategic policy is about influencing the psychology of the battlefield. Bush's enemies have to contend with the fact that he doesn't change his position, he doesn't give up and he doesn't give in.
This is one reason he is so unpopular with intellectuals.
He doesn't celebrate doubt. Sticking firmly to a course, expressing ideas of right and wrong - this is the very anti-thesis of the ideal postmodern leader, who must not only see, but feel and express every angle of every question.
Bill Clinton was the epitome of the postmodern leader - he embraced every position on every issue. Bush is an earlier issue specimen - he says what he means and means what he says. Like it or lump it.
The speech also showed how deeply the Middle East will define the Bush presidency. Bush gave substance to his inauguration address by naming and shaming two US allies, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
He dealt with them politely and sweetly, but by calling on them to embrace democracy he made it clear that their present political arrangements are a serious problem.
But perhaps the biggest news out of the speech were the continued tough words for Syria and Iran, two Middle East dictatorships which continue to sponsor terror, while Iran is also engaged in a nuclear weapons program.
Relentlessness is a highly underrated quality in a military/political leader. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 3, 2005 10:25 PM
Wonder if anybody in France worries that the next Atta will going after the European supporters of his government now that the Americans are pushing for liberalization. If so, this second order effect will also influence things in our direct.
Posted by: JAB at February 3, 2005 10:39 PMBush has a 10-year record now, dating back to the 1995 Texas Legislature, of focusing on a few core issues and then following through on his promises. Provincialism by the East Coast and foreign media elites, and their blinkerdness in getting all their information about the way Texas works from only far left sources that despised GWB by the mid-1990s is what is making Bush's two recent speeches such a revelation to people, as opposed to having figured him out by no later than the war in Afghanistan during his first year in Washington.
As for an attack on France or any other EU nation, I would expect only a mimimum of self-awareness to arise out of that. More than likely, the blame would be shifted to Bush and the U.S., because if we hadn't gone after Saddam in Iraq for no good reason, we wouldn't have inflamed the fires of the Arab street, boosting terrorist recruitment and hatred of the West, leading to the new attacks...
...after which, they would demand the U.N. -- meaning U.S. troops -- go after the terrorists in whatever nation-state they're found to be hiding, in order to uphold France and/or Germany's honor.
Posted by: John at February 3, 2005 10:53 PMI disagree about France. They will do what they have always done: drive a truck with a machine gun into a Muslim area and fire into the crowd. Then they will claim not to understand the angry denunciations because they are not spoken in French.
Posted by: Randall Voth at February 4, 2005 3:21 AMFortitude is a virtue, a habit of the soul. They hate Bush because of both.
Posted by: Luciferous at February 4, 2005 2:20 PM