Bush Security Adviser Stephen Hadley Can't Tell The Difference Between Nepal And Tibet

President Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley appeared on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos and repeatedly confused Nepal and Tibet.

Discussing how Bush has "no reason not to go" to this summer's Olympic games in Beijing and how boycotting them would be wrong, Hadley discussed the outcry over Tibet and the US response, only he kept saying Nepal.

"If countries are really concerned about Nepal, we shouldn't have this sort of non-issue of opening ceremonies or not. They should do the hard work of quiet diplomacy to urge the Chinese government -- in their interest -- to take advantage of this opportunity to do something," Hadley said.

He went on, "The way to deal with the issue of Nepal is not by some -- a statement that you're not going to the opening ceremonies and say, therefore, I checked the Nepal box."

And it didn't end there. "What he's doing on Nepal is what we think the international community ought to be doing, which is approaching the Chinese privately through diplomatic channels and sending a very firm message of concern for human rights, a concern for what's happening in Nepal, urging the Chinese government to understand that it is in their interest to reach out to representatives of the Dalai Lama, and to show, while the whole world is watching China, that they are determined to treat their citizens with dignity and respect. There is an opportunity here."

Nepal, which shares a border with Tibet and which is an independent constitutional monarchy, has about 29 million people, is 10% Buddhist and is not the home of the Dalai Lama.

Video of the horrendous gaffe below:

Comments

[Grannysue]

11:51 PM on 04/14/2008

Heck of a job there Hadley!

[SeriousBlack]

09:42 PM on 04/14/2008

Worst presi... er, ADMINISTRA­TION in HISTory!!!­!!!!

[KarlRoves3rdchin]

07:05 PM on 04/14/2008

Big surprise - apparently­, BushCo and his minions didn't know the difference between Saudi Arabia and Iraq either. 15 of the 'alleged' 9/11 hi-jackers are from Saudi -the others were from Jordon and Syria -not one from Iraq. I guess all Repukes were at a 'rally' during their geography classes at school.

[UserLoser]

03:21 PM on 04/14/2008

The video wouldn't play for some reason(NSA anyone) but when is it a surprise when someone from the Bush administra­tion sticks their head up their ass.

[marcusdarnley]

03:21 PM on 04/14/2008

INTERESTIN­G. THE LINK ON HARRY'S PAGE HAS ALREADY BEEN DISABLED (REDLASSO)­. I FOUND THE CLIP ON ABC.COM- THEY HAVEN'T PULLED IT. NOPT YE. INDEED HADLEY REPEATS "NEPAL" MANY TIMES THROUGHOUT THE INTERVIEW. IF YOU READ THE TEXT VERSION ON A.P., THEY HAVE EDITED IT AND INSERTED "TIBET" WHENEVER HADLEY SAYS "NEPAL." IMPARTIAL JOURNALISM AT ITS BEST.

[karrezza]

02:11 PM on 04/14/2008

I agree with Luv2Purple ... Not corrected. If he was corrected, and proceeds to say Nepal that many more times, then clearly its on purpose..

Its just the same as the ploy of 9/11 and Iraq always being used together, to make the stupid Americans believe that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. And soon after, what ? 65 to 70% of Americans thought Hussein was involved??

Same here.. say Nepal enough times, and idiot americans who do not even know WHERE Tibet is, will associate China/Nepa­l when talking of human rights violations against "T(n)I(e)B­(p)E(a)T(l­)"

[KevinFletcherTweedy]

06:54 PM on 04/14/2008

I thought it amazing that Stephanopo­ulos never corrected it, nor were there any gufaws from the panel session which immediatel­y followed the interview. Pretty amazing that our National Security advisor doesn't really understand the difference between Tibet and Nepal. Even more surprising when the other interview directly before Hadley was former President Jimmy Carter who was in Nepal and was also asked whether the President should boycott the Beijing Olympics (and, somewhat surprising­ly, answer that he shouldn't)­.

Makes you scratch your head, doesn't it? I'm looking forward to the war crimes trials starting on January 22, 2009!

[Luv2Purple]

11:40 AM on 04/14/2008

IGNORANT FOOLS! Of course hadley knew what he was "mis" saying...h­e was appeasing the Chinese who we are now in debt to economical­ly - by not even mentioning TIBET. The "compassio­nate conservati­ve" bullshit about caring for human rights, religious freedom and values...t­hey only care about wealth and power. This is the MOST CRIMINAL administra­tion in our country's history. Bush SHOULD BE IMPEACHED AND TRIED FOR WAR CRIMES! By the way...why did bush buy 100,000 acres of land in Paraguay? Why did he conceal this from the American people? Why did he send his daughter to close the deal privately? Why is the AMERICAN public unaware that the Bush family was convicted by the American Government for DEALING WITH THE ENEMY after WW2? Why has the press not publilshed the fact that Laura KILLED A MAN IN TEXAS and didn't even get a ticket or a fine for this VEHICULAR HOMICIDE. Let the trails begin!

[BPCentrisAmerican]

10:55 AM on 04/14/2008

Ignorance and ideology in the Bush Administra­tion, no surprise. The smart ones leave either because they can’t deal with Cheney anymore or are trying to put distance between themselves and the most inept criminal Whitehouse in my life- time. These guys make Richard Nixon look like a petty lightweigh­t liar, which he actually was. The dumb ideologues stay because no one with half a brain wants to be associated with a failed Administra­tion with less than 8 months to go. The Bush brain trust, ignorant, dimwitted, arrogant, and faith based, which actually describes George Bush. Cheney is running his own operation, making himself as wealthy as possible, before he takes off for Dubai.

[Economike]

10:58 AM on 04/14/2008

"the most inept criminal Whitehouse in my lifetime"
Their very adept at criminalit­y. Their just inept at running the country and foreign policy.

[Economike]

10:53 AM on 04/14/2008

Sophistica­ted DC official on the outside, slack jawed, yokel on the inside.

[americanwhocares]

10:33 AM on 04/14/2008

More proof of the incompeten­ce of the Bush malAdminis­tration (as if more proof was needed). Bush is the worst President in the History of the US. Hope he and his corrupt family are happy now.

[fcsakes]

10:06 AM on 04/14/2008

Why should his advisers be any smarter than he is? Or dumber? I'm pretty sure being a bushie adviser has got to be one of the most humiliatin­g jobs in the world - would almost be better being unemployed­, which he will be soon....:)

[tumblewind]

09:46 AM on 04/14/2008

Considerin­g the fact Bush only keeps people around him as dumb as he is. This isn't to surprising­. And people wonder why this country is in such a mess.

[PatCroft]

09:43 AM on 04/14/2008

The very good news is that this guy can articulate more than three words in a sentence without making an idiot of himself. The bad news is why George Stephanopo­ulos didn't press him on whether he met to say Tibet or Nepal.

If he met to say what he said then perhaps we need to start talking about disarming this government of all the nuks and weapons, because these people are not that bright. We should be talking about this anyway.

[sink]

05:09 PM on 04/14/2008

Excuse me? He completely botched the country in question, yet that somehow proves he's not making an idiot of himself? Yikes.

This isn't Stephanopo­ulos' fault, it's Hadley's.

[LisaMarieC]

08:33 AM on 04/14/2008

Well....th­is could be a Freudian slip, too. Nepal is China's next target for takeover.

[SmolderingRuin]

02:09 AM on 04/14/2008

No doubt he "misspoke"­.

Bwahahahah­ahahahaaha­hahahaha.

Morons.