WHY BUSH SHOULD NEVER SPEAK OFF THE CUFF, pt.627
In a statement that's sure to win the hearts and minds of Arabs everywhere, President Bush stated that Iraqis are now ready to "take the training wheels off" and assume power from the U.S.
Couple things. First, I generally agree with the idea, clumsily expressed by Bush, that countries without strong democratic traditions do need, to some extent, to be "taught" democracy. That's not to say that anyone's cultural heritage makes one unfit for democracy, only that democracy is a pretty complicated process, something that most Americans don't really recognize since we've seen it practiced all our lives and were brought up in its norms and procedures. But couldn't Bush have found a better metaphor than the 'father teaching his child to ride a bike' one? We all know now from the Abu Ghraib mess that humiliation is a major factor in Arab culture, at least those of us who actually read the newspaper rather than have it summarized for us by our aides do, and did it occur to Bush that comparing an entire Arab country to a bunch of children just might tweak the humiliation bone a bit? Time to go back on Arab TV and apologize again...
Second, a few weeks ago, the President slyly and ridiculously implied that critics of his Iraq operation were racists:
"There's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly."
Smell that? That's straw. I only bring it up because it makes today's condescension seem all the more goofy.
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