more Bush

[MalignD at aol.com]

I was watching the news a little while ago, listening to the French and 
Germans, but also listening to the Arabs, who met today in Turkey, and 
apparently are in earnest trying to persuade Saddam to relent, even offering 
him means to exile, should he choose to leave, as many of them seem to want 
him to do.

I'm as loath to give W credit as the next guy, but I found myself wondering 
whether it was realistic that he was as simplistic in his thinking as he 
appears to be.  Wondering that, I thought of Nixon, who incorporated being 
thought crazy into his foreign policy (i.e., acted crazy); thought of Reagan, 
whose presidency (by most lights successful) was almost entirely acting; and 
of W's father, who apparently genuinely hated Saddam at a personal level.  
Adding these up, I found myself wondering whether W was employing the same 
tactic, acting like a drunken cowboy, wanting to be taken as such, with the 
world invited to believe that he was using American foreign policy and 
military might to get personal retribution for Poppy.  Thinking that, it 
struck me that the French and Germans couldn't be serving W better if the 
situation were scripted:  even the allies think he's nuts!  He must be for 
real!

And maybe not.