Do you remember back in 2004 when those contractors were killed in Falluja and then their burnt bodies were hung from a bridge? You might remember it because Markos got in a lot of hot water for questioning why contractors got all the attention on a day when a bunch of lower paid soldiers got killed, too. In any case, the commanding general in Iraq at the time was Ricardo Sanchez, and he has a new autobiography out. It details how the president responded to the tragic events in Falluja.
During a videoconference with his national security team and generals, Sanchez writes, Bush launched into what he described as a “confused” pep talk:
“Kick ass!” he quotes the president as saying. “If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can’t send that message. It’s an excuse to prepare us for withdrawal.”
“There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!”
A White House spokesman had no comment.
I don’t know…it reads like a deranged and bloodthirsty rant. I can understand that the president was incredibly angry at the horrifying images from the bridge in Falluja. But this performance seems unhinged. Can you picture Eisenhower reacting this way? And then, of course, we leveled Falluja as soon as the election was over and dropped white phosphorus all over the place, which is technically a chemical weapon.
I really am ashamed of my country because of George W. Bush.
Any idea what else is in the book?
Kiss ‘n’ Tell books may be the fad this fall
Amazing, such anger at the deaths of private contractors, not actual members of the military.
George W. Bush has transformed the country into a continental Lady MacBeth: we will spend decades trying to wash out the spot, and we will never succeed because we didn’t impeach when we had the chance.
Seriously, wipe them out?
Sadly, I’m sure nobody is surprised.
It reminds me of various lines by characters like Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars, and Saruman in Lord of the Rings. I think Palpatine did say “Wipe them out!”, whereas Saruman’s was “Leave none alive!”
And how, exactly is “wipe them out” worse than a threat to obliterate Iran?
This is what we got when Scalia was allowed to choose for us.
Bush clearly was so far out of his depth; both emotionally as well as intellectually.
What is so astonishing is the number of people who shared Scottie’s blind loyalty and set their country aside in doing so.
I’d like to be able to say I’m shocked and disgusted at Bush’s “pep talk”, but at this point, it’s just mostly melancholic numbness. Bush is far too stupid and short-sighted to have even been trusted with the raising of children, as far as I’m concerned, but ‘Leader of the “Free” World’? No way.
I remember hearing back before Iraq I think, that a relatively newly-installed Bush and a few of his future-war criminal buddies at the White House were having an extra-special, whoop-it-up, private screening of Black Hawk Down. And with all that was to come in the horrible future, I just recall thinking, “Well, that can’t be good.”
No. It can’t. And it wasn’t.
Bush Loves War Flicks
Somehow this reminds me how the uber-patriot, John Wayne, was booed when he appeared in front of injured GIs towards the end of WWII.
This got me wondering too…
Barack Obama Talks Favorite Movies
And McCain and others
Heh, “Unforeseen complications.”
I’ll second that “Heh”.
“Unforeseen complications.”
I’d assume unforeseen complications are the most convenient kind for those that prefer to trade in complications at all.
What a horrifically miserable eight years it’s been. And it ain’t over yet.
Hate admitting it, but I’m w/ Clinton on this one. Bogie rocks. Though I’d pick Maltese Falcon above Casablanca.
I’m with ya on The Maltese Falcon. I think I’m partial to all the Greenstreet and Lorre Bogie films in general, actually.
“…it reads like a deranged and bloodthirsty rant.” That’s because it is a deranged and bloodthirsty rant. This man is the most dangerous man we have ever had in the presidency. And, that god-damned republican party nominated him and that god-damned American public elected him. Now, we all have to sweat out the remaining months of his term. This whole situation is just ridiculous. I worry about the survival of my children and grandchildren because the GOP wants to protect the millionaire class.
If GW Bush seeks to extend the march of democracy why doesn’t he start with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, or Egypt for that matter? When he finishes with these countries, he can proceed to the Gulf states like Abu Daabi, the Emirates, Kuwait. When I listen to his speeches on democracy, I feel like I am drowning in a tidal wave of bullshit.
Tell me I am dreaming and this whole situation is not really happening.
Republicans are surely the spawn of hell.
You are not dreaming, sorry, it is really still happening and will keep going on even after January. Everything is on automatic pilot and the next president, assuming he will really want to change things, will find a lot of unexploded cluster and time bombs lying around everywhere in Washington. Yes, what about Saudi Arabia! No, they’re our friends.
I believe Bush stole the elections in 2000 with the Supreme Court’s help and then in 2004 with the help of GOP operatives and Diebold.
Lunacy, but not surprising. It sounds like more of “Bring ’em on.” Or remember when Bush was joking with his campaign donors at a party about searching for WMD under a tablecloth, and he and everyone laughed?
Besides the notable lack of empathy, there’s a total disconnect: Kill them if they try to stop the march to democracy???
I think that “comedy routine” took place at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. That was our intrepid news media laughing along with Dear Leader.
Leslie, what we have seen in this incident – and others – is typical narcissistic behaviour. This man is, in fact, a pretty text book case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder – inability to empathize, grandiosity, exaggeration of his accomplishments, etc.
Narcissists are also often extremely charming and engaging, and have a way of sucking people in. I have heard references to his charm, and heard him described even by detractors as “engaging”, but I can’t see it. I have ALWAYS found him annoying and off-putting, even before seeing what he is really about, but maybe that’s just me.I’ve known a few narcissists who WERE very charming, fascinating people. He is not one of them.
Didn’t you get the note?
Ricardo Sanchez is just another “disgruntled employee” of the Bush administration who is probably mad because he was “out of the information loop”. He’s probably a closet Democrat, too.
Nothing to see here, folks. Let’s just move it along. Do as you’re instructed and go on about your business, fighting terrorism with your credit card.
Can you picture Eisenhower reacting this way?
As you probably know, Eisenhower was against the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
thank you for this most useful link
I agree, thanks so much for that link.
I just had a flashback to the really well edited scene in V for Vendetta when Adam Sutler was giving his rant.
Jeffrey Skahill on Democracy Now for 2 hrs this morning, his new Blackwater book update out this week. Beyond Fallujah the new branch of Blackwater creating the privatized CIA, w/help of Coffer Black is another legacy we will be saddled with.
sounds like something from Bush’s cheer-leading days at Yale..
shorter, smaller Bush, so short he’s reduced to a speck of a bump on a rotting log.
and McSame is just as war-obsessed.
Oliver Stone is making a movie about Bush. I hope it is not too late for him to include this dialogue in the movie:
“Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!”
If anyone is in doubt of Bush’s mental fitness to be president, this would answer that question nicely.
I forget who first mentioned it, some time in the early years of this century: that Bush is never so passionate and articulate when speaking, as when he is calling for people to be killed.
— That was Mark Crispin Miller, who’s also pointed out that it’s when Bush tries to sound like he has an actual functioning conscience that he gets all tangled up.
Bush’s remarks, by the way, are right out of Hitler’s Table Talk. He really is a war criminal.
.
See also my recent diary …
FALLUJAH, Iraq (SkyNews) May 29, 2008 – Families in the Iraqi city of Fallujah are calling for an investigation into their claims of a rise in the number of birth defects.
They have raised concerns about the weapons used by American forces in 2004 – when Fallujah suffered one of the heaviest bombardments of the entire war in Iraq.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."