Is the Iraq war all about George W. Bush?

Several people have already commented on the disconnect between the glowing account Pres. Bush gave, in this radio interview Monday, of the performance of the US-trained “Iraqi” forces in recent days and the accounts that reporters in Iraq have been giving of the Iraqi forces’ performance in the battle near Najaf, or the ones raging along Baghdad’s Haifa Street…
For example, in this piece in today’s NYT, Marc Santora, Qais Mizher, and another unnamed Iraqi reporter wrote of the Najaf battle,

    Iraqi forces were surprised and nearly overwhelmed by the ferocity of an obscure renegade militia in a weekend battle… and needed far more help from American forces than previously disclosed, American and Iraqi officials said Monday.
    They said American ground troops — and not just air support as reported Sunday — were mobilized to help the Iraqi soldiers, who appeared to have dangerously underestimated the strength of the militia…
    American Apache attack helicopters and F-16s, as well as British fighter jets, flew low over the farms where the enemy had set up its encampments and attacked, dropping 500-pound bombs on the encampments. The Iraqi forces were still unable to advance, and they called in support from both an elite Iraqi unit known as the Scorpion Brigade, which is based to the north in Hilla, and from American ground troops.
    Around noon, elements of the American Fourth Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division were dispatched from near Baghdad…

Bush truly does seem to live in some bubble-like cloud-cuckoo land when he talks about the capacities of the “Iraqi” forces. This is what he told NPR’s Juan Williams yesterday:

    the Iraqis are beginning to take the lead, whether it be this fight that you’ve just reported on where the Iraqis went in with American help to do in some extremists that were trying to stop the advance of their democracy, or the report that there’s militant Shia had been captured or killed. In other words, one of the things that I expect to see is the Iraqis take the lead and show the American people that they’re willing to the hard work necessary to secure their democracy, and our job is to help them.
    So my first reaction on this report from the battlefield is that the Iraqis are beginning to show me something…

Seemingly obivious to the facts, yes. But I noticed something else there, too: A clear indication that Bush, emperor-like, now thinks that the war in Iraq is all about him… and that the job of the Iraqi forces who have been trained by the Americans is to show him personally how well they can perform.
Maybe the rest of us need to find a better way to break through his bubble of solipsism and self-referentiality.
No, George Bush, this war is not all about you. It’s about the desire for self-rule and national independence of 28 million Iraqis… It’s about the anxious families of the 140,000 US service members whom you have recklessly deployed into harm’s way… And it’s about when and how the US citizenry can find a way out of the quagmire of unilateralism, self-referentiality, and threat into which your ill-informed warmongering has led us.
So please, please don’t carry on acting as though it’s all about you. It’s about all of us, the citizens of all the world’s countries, and how we can build a new set of much more secure relationships among us based on human equality and mutual respect.
One hint: this is probably not best achieved with attack helicopters, F-16s, and 500-pound bombs…

27 thoughts on “Is the Iraq war all about George W. Bush?”

  1. Is the Iraq war all about George W. Bush? …Bush, emperor-like, now thinks that the war in Iraq is all about him…, /I>
    NO!
    “Iraq war all about” United State of America and here ambition for a Great Imperialism.
    For GWB is a man the time brings him to be president of US in 21 century.
    GWB, have never changed from day one when he came to the presidency, the Americans (whatever percentage who vote for him) have choosing him three times!
    So it’s not his fault it’s the American’s fault or American’s problem, its Americans Imperialism attitude…

  3. Yeah, but why would he want to meet with members of Congress when he met with me last Friday, anyway? (I just haven’t had time to write it up for the blog yet.)
    Also, you might recall that quite a few members of Congress traveled to Syria over the winter break– against the expressed wishes of the administration… Things aren’t as bad for the Syrians on the Hill as they might be– and as they for a long time were…

  4. Listening to Jaun Williams interview of Bush on NPR, I was struck once again by what an uninformed, inarticulate, unengaged, slacker we have as POTUS. Really, much of it sounds like a “man on the street” interview of some random Texas gas station attendant – although with a little effort, I’m sure Juan could have found several such persons who would have made a better impression than Bush.
    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7056082

  5. recall that quite a few members of Congress traveled to Syria over the winter break– against the expressed wishes of the administration…
    We saw same with Iraq, also M. Ali, and others who came to Iraq and other Christian leaders…
    What happened after that? You know

  6. What most bothered me in that interview was Bush’s talk of an ‘ideological’ war. He stated that ‘Americans understand that’, that the war is ‘ideological’ and therefore, has to go on and on.
    I know there are many Americans who will nod their heads in agreement with this sort of thing. They are the people who would rather not know. They want to believe. These are the people who are willing to be so afraid that they will condone the killing of potential ‘terrorists’. Just so long as they themselves can continue to lead their own lives uninterrupted save by spasms of hatred and the occasional trip to the voting booth.

  7. 5300 words with 146 of them “I” or “me” comes to 2.75% or every thirty-seventh word. Perhaps in an autobiography that would pass unnoticed, but in a policy discussion?
    (Actually it’s even worse, because the journalist’s part should have been deleted before counting.)
    Little Brother has always been like that, evidently. During the 2000 campaign it was already striking how he talked about himself, continually saying flattering things that a normal person, even a pol, would arrange to have somebody else say.
    It can’t be just the congenital silver spoon in his mouth, because most rich-out-of-sight folks don’t behave like that at all. If anything, they tend towards a phony self-depreciation.
    But God knows best. Happy days.

  8. The man is clearly a sociopath, and most likely has at least a moderate case of narcissistic personality disorder.

  9. Oh Shirin, my friend, I am so disappointed. “Moderate case”?! It’s hard to find a more full-blown case. Talk about a slam-dunk diagnosis:
    Narcissistic Personality Disorder
    [from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, 1994, commonly referred to as DSM-IV, of the American Psychiatric Association.]
    Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is a pattern of self-centered or egotistical behavior that shows up in thinking and behavior in a lot of different situations and activities. People with NPD won’t (or can’t) change their behavior even when it causes problems at work or when other people complain about the way they act, or when their behavior causes a lot of emotional distress to others (or themselves? none of my narcissists ever admit to being distressed by their own behavior — they always blame other people for any problems). This pattern of self-centered or egotistical behavior is not caused by current drug or alcohol use, head injury, acute psychotic episodes, or any other illness, but has been going on steadily at least since adolescence or early adulthood.
    A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy. The disorder begins by early adulthood and is indicated by at least five of the following:
    1. An exaggerated sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements). The simplest everyday way that narcissists show their exaggerated sense of self-importance is by talking about family, work, life in general as if there is nobody else in the picture. Whatever they may be doing, in their own view, they are the star, and they give the impression that they are bearing heroic responsibility for their family or department or company, that they have to take care of everything because their spouses or co-workers are undependable, uncooperative, or otherwise unfit. They ignore or denigrate the abilities and contributions of others and complain that they receive no help at all.
    2. Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal faith or love. Narcissists cultivate solipsistic or “autistic” fantasies, which is to say that they live in their own little worlds (and react with affront when reality dares to intrude).
    3. Believes he is “special” and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions). Narcissists think that everyone who is not special and superior is worthless. By definition, normal, ordinary, and average aren’t special and superior, and so, to narcissists, they are worthless.
    4. Requires excessive admiration. Excessive in two ways: they want praise, compliments, deference, and expressions of envy all the time, and they want to be told that everything they do is better than what others can do. Sincerity is not an issue here; all that matter are frequency and volume.
    5. Has a sense of entitlement. They expect automatic compliance with their wishes or especially favorable treatment, such as thinking that they should always be able to go first and that other people should stop whatever they’re doing to do what the narcissists want, and may react with hurt or rage when these expectations are frustrated.
    6. Selfishly takes advantage of others to achieve his own ends. Narcissists use other people to get what they want without caring about the cost to the other people.
    7. Lacks empathy. They are unwilling to recognize or sympathize with other people’s feelings and needs. They “tune out” when other people want to talk about their own problems. They are aware that their feelings are different from other people’s, mostly that they feel less, both in strength and variety (and which the narcissists interpret as evidence of their own superiority); some narcissists report “numbness” and the inability to perceive meaning in other people’s emotions.
    8. Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him.
    9. Shows arrogant, haughty, patronizing, or contemptuous behaviors or attitudes. They treat other people like dirt.

  11. John C,
    Great point. In some of the original anarchist writings (Proudhon and Kropotkin among others) the same point was made extensively: that the kind of man (and woman I guess) who would want to “rule” over hundreds of thousands of people, a priori has psychopathic traits (hence, the fundamental and by-definition evil of government).

  12. Exxon’s 2006 top line revenues ($377.6 billion) exceed the gross domestic product of Saudi Arabia ($374 billion), according to the CIA. It’s net income ($39.5 billion) is roughly equal to North Korea’s GDP. Not that this is relevant to Iraq or anything.

  13. Jonathan, John C
    Do remember back at the beginning of the month everybody had gone gung ho and were shooting the shit out of Somali villages with AC-130s? And I said it reminded me of John F Kenedy’s few advisors in Vietnam.
    It seems things went a bit pear shaped. Victory parade is postponed.
    11 Rangers or Marine Recon people got captured by the other lot.
    http://allafrica.com/stories/200702010234.html
    Obviously it was the Iranians!!

  14. Thanks Frank. Hollywood should be happy. Now they can start filming the sequal: “Black Hawk Down II”
    “11 US servicemen reportedly captured by the defeated Islamists in southern Somalia”
    Good thing they were defeated, or who knows how many they might have captured.

  16. Well, David, I was just trying to be nice about it, after all – and I DID say at least a moderate case! :o}
    Actually, I have more than a passing acquaintance with NPD since I have had several of them in my life in various capacities. A manager I once had was a classic case – excessivly charming (not everyone was charmed, but astonishingly some were), and capable of textbook “narcissistic rage” to which I was subjected a couple of times because I would not go along with his directives. One of them is still in my life as a long-time friend, despite the fact that I do not let him get away with anything (usually narcissists discard people like me). So yes, Bush is a textbook narcissist. No wonder his daughters drink! As for Laura, no comment.
    John C., everyone who is mentally healthy is narcissistic to some degree. While most executives have an exceptionally high degree of narcissism they do not have the disorder.
    NPD is a terrible, terrible condition that is virtually impossible to treat even in cases where the narcissist understands that he has the disorder and wants to get better. Narcissists, aside from suffering a lot themselves, leave little but misery in their path as they pass through life.
    And by the way, I have heard that Bush is “engaging”, “charming”, as many narcissists are said to be, but I just don’t see it and I never have. I have always found him distinctly unappealing.

  17. Shirin
    I agree with you. I once found myself trying to understand where the claims of an organisation built by a “charismatic ” manager to world class excellence came from. I concluded that people had only seen the smoke and mirrors and that there was nothing else. He moved on to greater things before he got found out.
    Now you dont by any chance have a diagnosis of the Vice President and Secretary of State?

  18. Iraqi Justices Minister talks with Al-hayat Newspaper
    نعم، عدد المعتقلين لدى القوات المتعددة الجنسية وصل الى 4400 معتقل الى جانب 14 ألفاً آخرين معتقلين في سجني بوكا وكروبر حيث يقع الأول تحت سيطرة القوات البريطانية فيما تشرف القوات الاميركية على الثاني، اما المحتجزون لدى الحكومة العراقية فأعدادهم مختلفة حيث يصل عدد المعتقلين لدى وزارة الداخلية الى اكثر من 8000 معتقل ولدى وزارة الدفاع اكثر من 1800 معتقل، اما في وزارة العدل فعدد المعتقلين وصل الى 2400 معتقل أحيلت أوراق غالبيتهم الى المحاكم المختصة ومازال آخرون على ذمة التحقيق لدى القضاء العراقي ولا يوجد لدينا اي معتقل لم تعرض أوراقه على القضاء.
    There are 18400 Iraqi detainees in Camp Poka and Camp Cropper detainees’ centres south Iraq under Britt’s and US troops.
    The Iraqi detained by Iraqi authorities:
    1- Ministry of Internal Affairs- 8000
    2- Iraqi ministry of defence- 1800
    3-Justice ministry- 2400, all these detainees have their case looked by the courts…

  20. The New York [read Tel Aviv] Times beats the drums of war, again:
    “Today the New York Times, on page A10, informs us that “Iran May Have Trained Attackers That Killed 5 American Soldiers, U.S. and Iraqis Say”
    Note that:
    – the claim that Iran “may have” trained attackers gets the headline and the lede. Of course, green Martians “may have” trained the attackers. The key question is: is there real evidence?
    – there is not a single named source in the article.
    – there is no rebuttal, no point of view different from the allegation, even though plenty of knowledgeable analysts (Juan Cole, Gareth Porter, Trita Parsi, for starters) could have easily been found to give a contrary view. A recent Los Angeles Times piece found “scant evidence” for the claim that Iran was behind attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
    – no “direct evidence” exists, as the article acknowledges (further down.)
    – the only “evidence” given is that the attack was sophisticated (what are they saying – Iraqis are too dumb to do this by themselves ?!) and that Iran has a motive for retaliating against the U.S. Which is no evidence at all – lots of folks have a motive for retaliating against the U.S.”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot-and-robert-naiman/ghost-of-judith-miller-_b_40120.html

  22. John C,
    Please note that the DSM-IV criteria that I copy-pasted are incomplete, since I didn’t imagine anyone would want to make a clinical diagnosis based on a political blog. The full version starts with this : “The disorder begins by early adulthood and is indicated by at least five of the following:” and it also has another major caveat (that it should not meet the diagnostic criteria for more severe psychopathology, especially the psychoses). Now that you mention, the case at hand may actually qualify for a more important psychiatric disorder in Axis I, namely “Delusional disorder, grandiose type, with narcissistic traits” [See DSM-IV criteria below]. If so, this would be a more serious case, since PDs (personality disorders) are considered in Axis II, milder and not considered a “thought disorder” like those in Axis I. Please note that the psychiatric definition of delusion is a bit different from the OED definition: “A false personal belief that is not subject to reason or contradictory evidence and is not explained by a person’s usual cultural and religious concepts. A delusion may be firmly maintained in the face of incontrovertible evidence that it is false. Delusions are a frequent feature of schizophrenia and delusional psychoses.” Then, all of this applies presuming that he believes, at least in part, in what he says. If he is knowingly falsifying everything consistently, then we have Antisocial or Schizoid PD. Now, here are the criteria:
    Delusional Disorder
    A pattern of non-bizarre delusions including feelings of being followed, deceived or conspired against, or loved and selected at a distance. Non-bizarre referred to real life situations which could be true, but are not or are greatly exaggerated. Bizarre delusions, which would rule out this disorder, are those such as believing that your stomach is missing or that aliens are seeking you out to be their leader. Delusional disorder can be subtyped into the following categories: erotomanic, grandiose, jealous, persecutory, somatic, and mixed. Symptoms include:
    Nonbizarre delusions for at least one month.
    Absence of obviously odd or bizarre behavior.
    Schizoaffective Disorder and Mood Disorder with Psychotic Features have been ruled out.
    Absence of evidence that an organic factor initiated and maintained this psychotic disturbance.
    Absence of prominent hallucinations of a voice for at least one week. Absence of visual hallucinations for at least one week.
    Has never met the criteria for the active phase of Schizophrenia.
    Subtypes
    Erotomanic Type: Predominately erotomanic delusions.
    Grandiose Type: Predominately grandiose delusions.
    Jealous Type: Predominately delusions of jealousy.
    Persecutory Type: Predominately persecutory delusions.
    Somatic Type: Predominately somatic delusions.
    Unspecified Type: Doesn’t fit any of the previous categories.
    These patients, who tend to be in their 40’s and 50’s, may not realise that they have a delusional disorder until it is pointed out by family or friends. Even then diagnosis may be difficult because many do not voluntarily seek treatment. They are frequently hypersensitive and argumentative, as they see “the facts” differently and are enraged when others do no accept their perspective… Social and occupational dysfunction, when it occurs, usually is in direct response to their delusions, that tend to leave these patients in a different state of reality.

  23. John,
    Here are the criteria for diagnosing a personality disorder from DMS-IV, which is the diagnostic “bible” for pshychologists and psychiatrists:
    A. An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture. This pattern is manifested in two (or more) of the following areas:
    (1) cognition (i.e., ways of perceiving and interpreting self, other people, and events)
    (2) affectivity (i.e., the range, intensity, lability, and appropriateness of emotional response)
    (3) interpersonal functioning
    (4) impulse control
    B. The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations.
    C. The enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
    D. The pattern is stable and of long duration and its onset can be traced back at least to adolescence or early adulthood.
    E. The enduring pattern is not better accounted for as a manifestation or consequence of another mental disorder.
    F. The enduring pattern is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., head trauma).
    To be diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder a person will have five or more of the nine personality traits David listed, in addition to meeting the above criteria for a personality disorder.
    Narcissistic Personality disorder is extremely variable in its severity and the way it manifests in different individuals. For example, some narcissists are extremely gregarious people, and need to constantly be surrounded by and itneracting with people (preferably people who admire him), while others are very withdrawn. According to information from narcissists themselves and from those who have treated them, both behaviours are reactions to the almost constant anxiety narcissists feel.
    One of the most common traits of narcissists is that their “self-reporting” is, shall we say, not necessarily connected to reality. They don’t seem to be concerned about telling contradictory stories from one day to the next, and calling them on it is rarely a good idea. For some reason my friend tolerates that kind of thing from me, and most often when caught in an untruth will simply respond with hehehehehe or something similar.
    Another very telling trait for narcissists, especially those who are dependent on social contact is a pattern in which they first idealize and overvalue a person beyond all reality, then eventually they will devalue the person usually in very cruel ways, and finally discard them and move on to the next victim. Spouses and lovers of narcissists experience this in the most painful way imaginable. There are a lot of support groups for victims of narcissists.

  27. John C.,
    Yes … Jeez I was not talking about Shirin. I don’t know how that became transposed from one thread to another. Bizarre.

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