All Posts Tagged With: "Iraqi"

Sobering assessment by the former Iraqi prime minister hand-picked by the Bush Administration:

(Reuters) - Former U.S.-installed Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has denounced the policies of President George W. Bush as an “utter failure” that gave rise to the sectarian venom that ravaged his country.

… “Yes, Bush’s policies failed utterly,” said Allawi, describing the U.S. administration that once backed him. “Utter failure. Failure of U.S. domestic and foreign policy, including fighting terrorism and economic policy.”

“His insistence on names like ‘democracy’ and ‘open elections’, without giving attention to political stability, was a big mistake. It cast shadows on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Egypt, and I believe this will be remembered in history as President Bush’s policy,” he said.

After seeing video of the bizarre incident in which an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President Bush, I found myself feeling oddly mixed emotions.

First, I was taken aback by the assault on our president. While I profoundly disagree with his policies and still continue to believe he is one of the worst presidents this nation has ever had, he is still our president and it was an attack on our leader.

Conversely, my second thought was what an appropriate footnote to this whole Iraq fiasco and I couldn’t help but admire the courage this journalist had to make such a public statement of protest against the world’s most powerful leader, which will have no minor consequences.

Then, my next thought was that I was pretty impressed by the president’s quick response, ducking with lightning quick reflexes. I found myself oddly proud of this man that has done so little in the last eight years to be proud of.

Finally, I was a little troubled by how unprotected the president was and how long it took for bodyguards to come to his aid. Josh Marshall had similar thoughts…

But watching the video of the Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at President Bush, I could not help but notice that it took an uncomfortably long period of time for anyone to get to the assailant and, even more, much longer than I would have expected for anyone who looked like Secret Service to get to the president and block his body or get him out of harm’s way.

I guess the point here is that this was a very confined space. Presumably the Secret Service controlled access to the degree that they were confident there were no unauthorized weapons in the room. And they wouldn’t have to worry about someone with a gun at a greater distance. So they may have been less worried about jumping in front of the president, etc.

Maybe I’m just over-analyzing this. And obviously a president can’t be under lock and key at all moments, with Secret Service agents ready to throw him to the floor at a moment’s notice. But for an American president, any moment in Iraq has to be considered a very high risk situation. So it did make me wonder.

I’m sure there will be a thorough review of the incident and Secret Service procedures. But the incident was more than a little unsettling, no matter how one might feel about the president himself.