The Most Inappropriate Bush War Smirk of 2007
Given 2008's inevitably ramped-up analysis of the Bush Legacy by the very serious traditional media, there's one aspect of the president which, staggeringly though not surprisingly, won't be covered. In fact, it's never been covered to my knowledge. The traditional media has never really challenged the president on his grotesquely inappropriate reactions to serious issues -- especially Iraq.
His uncomfortably ridiculous smirks and smiles illustrate his inadequacies as a leader: his fugacious attitude; his vacant stature; and, most strikingly, his apparent inability to grasp the reality of his decisions. It's all right there on the screen -- underlined by those tiny baby teeth.
So as a reminder to the traditional media, I'd like to present the Most Inappropriate Bush War Smirk of 2007. But first, some runners up.
The date: October 17, 2007
The place: The White House Press Briefing Room
The hilarious quote: "But this -- we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding [grinning] World War III [end grinning], it seems like you [begin giggling] ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge [end giggling] necessary to make a nuclear weapon."
The date: April 3, 2007
The place: The White House Rose Garden
The hilarious quote: "That's precisely why I sent more troops into Baghdad."
The date: January 14, 2007
The place: 60 Minutes
The hilarious quote: "There's not enough troops on the ground right now to provide security for Iraq and that's why I made the decision I made."
And now, for the historical record, The Most Inappropriate Bush War Smirk of 2007:
The date: January 16, 2007
The place: PBS's NewsHour With Jim Lehrer
The hilarious quote: "If I didn't believe we could keep the egg from fully cracking, I wouldn't ask 21,000 kids -- additional kids to go into Iraq to reinforce those troops that are there."
Soon after this smirk, the president, as part of his euphemistically nicknamed New Way Forward, ordered an additional 21,000 soldiers into Iraq with the goal of providing military cover for a political solution to the civil war there.
During the intervening 11 months between the above smirk and today, 6,796 American soldiers were either killed or wounded under the president's hap-hap-happy command.
The political solution for which these soldiers gave their lives... never happened.
I don't know who he thinks he is or what he thinks he's grinning about, but for the Commander in Chief of the United States armed forces to smile and giggle while discussing warfare of any form or magnitude is an insult -- not just to the soldiers who followed his orders into battle, but also to basic decency and human morality. From his zany "those WMDs have to be around here somewhere" sketch to his shit-eating grin whilst comparing warfare to wacky-yet-delicious breakfast foods, this extends far beyond the necessary objective distance of a military leader and into the realms of madness.
This is the Bush Legacy, Traditional Media. Please consider this in the coming months. President Bush injected a psycho bomb into the Middle East without any real grasp of the consequences and, nearly five years into the conflict, is so affectless about these consequences as to smirk and laugh at it all.
Or maybe there's an hilarious joke in there somewhere and we're all just dumb about it.
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Thanks, Bob. When folks on the right wonder why we hate shrub, I think about exactly this smirking behavior and his failures and detachment from consequences. Thanks for saying it so well, better than I ever could.
Why is it that people actually take the time to write that they object to people using CAPS?
The people that use CAPS are angry and they feel better when they use CAPS. We have to deal with this moron of a man (use loosely) for another year. People are angry and frustrated with everything about him. His stupid use of words, his smirks, his wifes frozen smile. Everything is good in Bush land, we just have to put up with him so let people write in CAPS if it makes them feel better. I think we have more important things to worry about.
There ARE no suitable facial expressions for the evil that this man and his regime have perpetrated.
From his zany "those WMDs have to be around here somewhere" sketch
I saw that sketch on live television, and to this day, I am disgusted by it.
Bush joking about his reasons for the atrocities he has committed against our troops and Iraqi civilians being wrong, is beyond appalling, and it's what I will always remember Bush for: a country bumpkin devoid of any conscience or sense of decency.
The Pagan War President...he happy man! If people ain't a dyin', he's a cryin'. If people are a dyin', he's a smilin'! He smiles a lot these days.
My favorite inappropriately demonic smile was when he cracked a joke IMMEDIATELY after (way low ball) estimating how many innocent Iraqi's he'd killed with his illegal invasion of Iraq...
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THE PRESIDENT: How many Iraqi citizens have died in this war? I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis. We've lost about 2,140 of our own troops in Iraq.
Yes.
Q Mr. President, thank you --
THE PRESIDENT: I'll repeat the question. If I don't like it, I'll make it up. (Laughter and applause.)
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Such a happy Pagan War President! If they're a dyin'...he's a smilin'! 1.2 million smiles and counting!
This is for "realwoman"blogger. There is nothing REAL about you or your statements. It is people like you that are so easily led like sheep to their death. You are so gullible you would actually write words down in a blog so ridiculous that no one in their right mind would actually believe. Go on and believe that Bush is a great president and that another Republican will follow in his footsteps. That is the irony in your words. It makes me laugh all the way to the election
In any election, I choose character over political persuasion. I voted Gore and Kerry because they are men of conscience - something totally GW lacks.
He lies like he breathes - it's involuntary and he's completely comfortable doing it. He simply does not seem to care about the lives he has forced to be lost in vain in Iran.
He seems more interested in whacking weeds on the ranch and riding his presidential bike than governing a country in crisis.
Bush is an embarrassment to this country. His legacy may in fact be in starting WWIII. Knowing Bush, he will take that as a compliment.
He's smirking because he think's he's proven Lincoln irrelevant - you only have to fool enough people in the right states all the time.
You know what would be really interesting? If this idiot's defenders would actually EXPLAIN what the hell is defensible about him. Instead, all they can do is jump on his detractors and call them names. Come on Bushies! Pony up some legitmate reasons why you love this guy. I seriously want to know. Name one good thing he's done in the last 7 years. Just one.
remember his press conference after Katrina when he joked about Trent Lott losing his house "...and I look forward to sitting on his porch again someday."all with that stupid grin on his face.
or how about wifey Laura showing up after the bridge collapse to meet survivors and family members of those killed.Laura Bush exited her motorcade with a BEEMING SMILE(I was actually shocked by this).
but it's not just them.the family of a murdered two year old girl laugh as they're being interviewed because they're just so happy to be on TV.
deep down something is seriously wrong with this country.people's values are just screwed up.don't believe me?check out all the judge shows on TV and watch Britney and Anna-Nicole Smith get listed as the biggest stories of 2007.
Mr. Cesca,
I have long admired your writing and your wit- to that list I must now add "your intestinal fortitude" in searching through the clips to bring us those screen shots. I nearly launched my oatmeal just looking at 'em.
Maxbyte is on to something!
I worked for years as an abuse counselor and quickly picked up on the patients that laughed and smirked inappropriately while discussing their addictions. It took me no time to understand that these patients weren't about getting clean. They were about getting on with their lives, as they knew them and to hell with the consequences that affected others.
I called one out one day and told him that I didn't feel that he was interesting in changing. He wanted to know why I would say that. I explained that he still enjoyed laughing and giggling through his "war stories" about his drug abuses. He didn't make it through the program and died 3 weeks later.
Point is that when you don't take seriously and try to correct your addictions ( drugs, alcohol, abuse, power, war, indifference to the welfare of the people, etc. etc.) something is going to go terribly wrong.
Bush will pay, but when? His addictions are fueling his ego right now and it doesn't make one whit's difference if he is the puppet or the puppeteer.
Impeach Bush, Cheney, Polosi and Reid. They are all in cahoots.
One day...one day, someone is going to knock that obnoxious shit-eating grin right off of the Criminal-in-Chief's face.
Know how I know this? No matter HOW big, or HOW bad somebody is, there is always somebody bigger and badder looming on the horizon, looking for revenge.
Bush is a simpleton, a sociopath, a deranged megalomaniac, who has never paid for anything in his pathetic little life...YET.
I hope they televise the thrashing Bush is gonna get, all 10 minutes of it, til the very end, when the 90 year old grandparent of one of the dead or wounded, KO's his smirking ass, places a foot on his prostrate chest, and shakes 2 fists in the air, the sign of victory.
I'll be rooting for grandma, no matter what nationality she is.
Bob,
Instead of going to the Lincoln Memorial, children will go the the Smirking Chimp Statute where an animated statute of Bush will smirk and blink when he lies, which is almost all of the time.
Children can then play a game by guessing, when, if ever, he is telling the truth. If they guess right, they can get a free Impeach Bush/Cheney button to impress their friends with.
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