Who would have known it? Bush is opposed to "bullying and intimidation".

Bush has shown that he has scarce understanding of how the neo-cons have conducted themselves over the past eight years when he comes out with a statement like this:

“Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century.”

The US, under Bush, have done nothing but bully and intimidate. That has been their entire foreign policy. They have dismissed international law and the United Nations as an outrage which is nothing short of demanding that they seek a permission slip to defend themselves.

The very mantra which he used to define his administration is the mantra of the bully: "You are either with us or against us."

Indeed, there is even the Ledeen Doctrine which many right wingers have been quoting as a sensible way for the US to conduct it's foreign policy. The doctrine states:

"Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business."

It's simply ridiculous for Bush to state that he's against "bullying and intimidation" when aides from his own administration are on record as stating nonsense like this:

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

I suppose the most arrogant administration in memory must mean that it's not fair for others to use "bullying and intimidation" to get what they want, as the Bush administration have some kind of copyright on such practices.

Here we see Thomas Friedman outline what he regards as the real reason for the Iraq war. The US needed to tell Arabs to "Suck on this":



This is how Bush's defenders see his actions. And the US is against "bullying and intimidation"?

Click title for source.

Tags: Bush, Cheney, neo-cons, arrogance, bullying, intimidation