printBy now everybody has seen the footage of a masticating Bush, at the G8 summit in St Petersburg, who, mouth agape, barked at Blair:
“You see, the thing is what they [Russia] need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over.” And, “I felt like telling Kofi to get on the phone to Assad and make something happen.”
Magnus Linklater of Times Online “rather warmed to Mr Bush’s gangsta rap summary of the crisis in Lebanon.” I must echo Linklater, this time, even though I’ve consistently opposed Bush over the years, describing him as “a bulldog with more bite than brains.” He can amuse, though. And to be fair, Dubya has a point this time.
Linklater’s is, however, a qualified amusement, with which I too concur:
“…the picture that emerges of the Bush-Blair relationship, revealed by that brief snatch of overheard conversation, is a depressing one. Even allowing for the verbal shorthand in which they talk, there is something shallow and simplistic about their world view. Neither gives any indication that they are pursuing a dynamic or creative approach to solving the current crisis, and policy seems to consist of a few half-formed ideas spun out at random. An approach to the hellish bombardment of Beirut that reduces negotiations to a quick image-building trip to the Middle East, and refers laughingly to a key player in Syria, does nothing to suggest a firm grasp of the situation.”
I would venture, furthermore, that the base (and basic) Bush-Blair banter does a lot to dispel conspiracy theories about what Our Leaders get up to when they think the microphones are off. Tinfoil-hat types often bang on about hidden agendas (and wars for Israel and oil). But, as is rather obvious, what you see is what you get.