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Bush: Afghanistan Challenge Romantic    [

    Soft Shoe in Hard Times
    By Maureen Dowd
    The New York Times

    Sunday 16 March 2008

    Washington - Everyone here is flummoxed about why the president is in such a fine mood.

    The dollar's crumpling, the recession's thundering, the Dow's bungee-jumping and the world's disapproving, yet George Bush has turned into Gene Kelly, tap dancing and singing in a one-man review called "The Most Happy Fella."

    "I'm coming to you as an optimistic fellow," he told the Economic Club of New York on Friday. His manner - chortling and joshing - was in odd juxtaposition to the Fed's bailing out the imploding Bear Stearns and his own acknowledgment that "our economy obviously is going through a tough time," that gas prices are spiking, and that folks "are concerned about making their bills."

    He began by laughingly calling the latest news on the economic meltdown "a interesting moment" and ended by saying that "our energy policy has not been very wise" and that there was "no quick fix" on gasp-inducing gas prices.

    "You know, I guess the best way to describe government policy is like a person trying to drive a car in a rough patch," he said. "If you ever get stuck in a situation like that, you know full well it's important not to overcorrect, because when you overcorrect you end up in the ditch."

    Dude, you're already in the ditch.

    Boy George crashed the family station wagon into the globe and now the global economy. Yet the more terrified Americans get, the more bizarrely carefree he seems. The former oilman reacted with cocky ignorance a couple of weeks ago when a reporter informed him that gas was barreling toward $4 a gallon.

    In on-the-record sessions with reporters - and more candid off-the-record ones - he has seemed goofily happy in recent weeks, prickly no more but strangely liberated and ebullient.

    Even though he ordinarily hates being kept waiting, he made light of it while cooling his heels for John McCain, and did a soft shoe for the White House press. Wearing a cowboy hat, he warbled a comic Western ditty at the Gridiron Dinner a week ago - alluding to Scooter Libby's conviction, Saudis getting richer from our oil-guzzling, Brownie's dismal Katrina performance, and Dick Cheney's winsome habit of withholding documents.

    At a dinner on Wednesday, the man who is persona non grata on the campaign trail (except for closed fund-raisers) told morose Republican members of Congress that he was totally confident that "we can retake the House" and "hold the White House."

    "I think 2008 is going to be a fabulous year for the Republican Party!" he said, sounding like Rachael Ray sprinkling paprika on goulash. That must have been news to House Republicans, who have no money, just lost the seat held by their former speaker, and are hemorrhaging incumbents as they head into a campaign marked by an incipient recession and an unpopular war.

    If only they could see things as the president does. Bush, who used his family connections to avoid Vietnam, told troops serving in Afghanistan on Thursday that he is "a little envious" of their adventure there, saying it was "in some ways romantic."

    Afghanistan is still roiling, as is Iraq, but W. is serene. "Removing Saddam Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency, it is the right decision now, and it will be the right decision ever," he said, echoing that great American philosopher Dan Quayle, who once told Samoans, "Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been and, as far as I am concerned, happy campers you will always be."

    W. bragged to Republicans about his "considered judgment" in sending more troops to Iraq and again presented himself as an untroubled instrument of divine will. "I believe there's an Almighty," he said, "and I believe a gift of that Almighty to every man, woman and child is freedom."

    Although the president belittled the Democrats for their policy of "retreat," his surge has been a temporary and expensive place-holder for what Americans want: a policy to get us out of Iraq.

    "Has it allowed us to reduce troop levels to below where they were when it started?" Michael Kinsley wrote recently. "The answer is no." Gen. David Petraeus told The Washington Post last week that no one in the U.S. and Iraqi governments "feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation."

    Maybe the president is just putting on a good face to keep up American morale, the way Herbert Hoover did after the crash of '29, when he continued to dress in a tuxedo for dinner.

    Or maybe the old Andover cheerleader really believes his own cheers, and that prosperity will turn up any time now, just like the W.M.D. in Iraq.

    Or perhaps it's a Freudian trip. Now that he's mucked up the world and the country, he can finally stop rebelling against his dad and relax in the certainty that the Bush name will forever be associated with crash-and-burn presidencies.

    Whatever the explanation, it's plumb loco.

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    Afghanistan Challenge Romantic - Bush
    By Tabassum Zakaria
    The Herald Sun AUS

    Friday 14 March 2008

    US President George W Bush says he would fight in Afghanistan if he was younger.

    President Bush spoke of his dream to work on the frontline in Afghanistan during a video conference with US military and civilian personnel in the war-torn country.

    "I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said.

    "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.

    "It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," President Bush said.

    President Bush was briefed about problems and progress in Afghanistan where a war has dragged on for more than six years.

    The President was told challenges range from fighting local government and police corruption to persuading farmers to abandon a lucrative poppy drug trade for other crops.

    President Bush heard tales of all-night tea drinking sessions to coax local residents into cooperating, and of tribesmen crossing mountains to attend government meetings seen as building blocks for the country's democracy-in-the-making.

    He was also told of efforts to reduce support for the Taliban in tribal areas as well as hopeful signs that schools were being built, more health care was reaching remote areas and local government officials were being trained in management.

    Critics accuse President Bush of focusing on Iraq to the detriment of Afghanistan where the Taliban has persisted in fighting after being ousted from power by the US-led war in 2001 following the September 11 attacks.

    President Bush will try to persuade allies at a NATO summit in early April to do more for Afghanistan.

    He wants international support to reduce violence, boost the economy and provide social services.

    "We're obviously analysing ways to help our NATO allies to be able to step up, and step up more," he said.

    Canada has demanded 1000 more troops from other countries as a condition for remaining in Afghanistan to work near Kandahar where its 2500-strong force is fighting the Taliban.

    "We're mindful of their request, and we want to help them meet that request," President Bush said.

    NATO has a total of 43,000 troops in Afghanistan. The US has 29,000 troops in the country, about half of which are part of NATO, and is sending another 3200 marines.

    The Afghan mission is the toughest ground war faced by the 59-year-old alliance and has led to open differences among allies over tactics and troop levels.

    President Bush sat at the head of a conference table at the White House with Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and others.

    A Reuters correspondent was permitted to observe the White House exchange that took place with US Ambassador to Afghanistan William Wood and US military and civilian personnel in Kabul.

    The video conference was stopped several times when the sound crackled, diagnosed by technicians as a bad microphone at Kabul's end, which was immediately swapped for a new one.

    "You're looking beautiful but you're not sounding too good," said President Bush, who was in charge of the remote control, increasing and lowering the volume at will.

    President Bush was told that if local governments can provide for their people, they will respond by breaking away from tribal law and the Taliban.

    One of the American participants in Kabul said there was a saying in Ghazni: "Taliban begins where the paved road ends."