Murdering And Swashbuckling

This first image is a NYT front page montage of U.S. vets who have returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan only to have commited murder.  (See  NYT report link below).  The second shot features 43 showing off a gift from king Al-Khalifa of Bahrain on Saturday.

Because both stories have been simultaneously floating around the media space, I thought I would juxtapose the two, just for the sake of illustrating the near complete disconnect between Bush reality and the more everyday kind.

With a year left in office, this joker — through some combo of low approval ratings and lame duck status — pulled off a Middle East trip (including a visit to the West Bank) with absolutely no positive impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after kicking off the excursion with a completely fabricated stunt in the Straits of Hormuz to grease the trip’s oily skids with a heaping dose of anti-Iranian sentiment.  And for all that, did he even get a wrist slapping?

(Well no, but he did score a front page NYT article on Saturday detailing the threat to our ships from Iranian speedboats.)

Doesn’t anyone (not just folks around here) see the irony of a cowboy President in the Persian Gulf rattling a saber — especially at the same time Desert Storm vets are taking people out at the 7/11?

Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles (NYT report on vets committing murder)

Swashbuckling Bush Wields Ceremonial Sword In Rhythmic Bahrain Tribute ( (AP Video via Breitbart)

Iran Encounter Grimly Echoes ’02 War Game (The speed boat threat.  Saturday, NYT front page)



(image 1:  unattributed.  January 13, 2007. nytimes.com.  image 2: Larry Downing/Reuters.  January 12, 2007. Manama , Bahrain. via WAPO)