Letters to the Editor

Quote of the Day George W. Bush on the crisis in the Middle East. Tim Grieve [2006-07-17]

• The extended version is much more interesting...

  Tim, I have to chide you a bit for going for the easy prey on this one. The transcript (copied below from CNN.com) is fasincating, and it says a lot (between the lines) about how Bush and Blair see things. I almost get the sense Bush and Blair are having two different conversations, with each of them hearing what they want to hear (or resigned to the fact that the other won't change):

  Bush: What about Kofi Annan? I don't like the sequence of it. His attitude is basically cease-fire and everything else happens.

  Blair: I think the thing that is really difficult is you can't stop this unless you get this international presence agreed.

  Bush: She's going. I think Condi's (U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) going to go pretty soon.

  Blair: Well that's all that matters. If you see, it will take some time to get out of there. But at least it gives people....

  Bush: It's a process I agree. I told her your offer too.

  Blair: Well it's only or if she's gonna or if she needs the ground prepared as it were. See, if she goes out she's got to succeed as it were, where as I can just go out and talk.

  Bush: See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over.

  Blair: Cause I think this is all part of the same thing. What does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine, if he gets a solution in Israel and Palestine, Iraq goes in the right way, he's done it. That's what this whole things about. It's the same with Iran.

  Bush: I feel like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen. We're not blaming Israel and we're not blaming the Lebanese government.

  -- Peter M.
  [Read Peter M.'s other letters]
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