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Analogies Are Dangerous — Why Now?
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Analogies Are Dangerous

A chainsaw is really useful after a hurricane for clearing debris, but you have to know how to use one safely or you may end up in the back of a pick-up racing to a hospital with various body parts in a cooler beside you.

Analogies are like chainsaws: helpful when used with care and knowledge, but dangerous if you haven’t read the manual and don’t pay attention.

The Shrubbery was in Hungary and said that Hungary was an example for the Iraqi people.

I think someone should sit the Shrubbery down and explain that Hungary welcomed the Soviet army’s help in getting rid of the Nazis, but wanted them to leave in 1956.

So Saddam = Hitler, Iraq = Hungary, and the US = the Soviet Union. Somehow I don’t think that’s what he wanted to say, although it is a fairly accurate picture of what’s going on.

Someone needs to show the Shrubbery how to “keep the chain tight and oiled” and always maintain control so those analogies don’t kickback on him.

10 comments

1 andante { 06.22.06 at 7:33 pm }

It really makes you wonder what Yale is telling their history majors. Or more likely – how Bush ever managed to get a degree.

Never mind.

Anyway, this statement struck me as just another way of saying “Bring ’em on”.

2 Bryan { 06.22.06 at 7:41 pm }

I believe that he has the most incompetent staff ever hired to work for any executive in modern times. Staff people are supposed to check and verify these things and prevent the “boss” from making a fool of themselves. It is made worse by the fact that he’s not as bright as a turkey, but a real staff would prevent these things.

3 andante { 06.22.06 at 9:14 pm }

I take it you’ve seen this roundup of his latest European boorishness?

For old time’s sake, I’ll just assume there are still some people in the White House and/or at Foggy Bottom who actually understand & appreciate protocal, basic good manners, and cultural sensibilities.

With that assumption – when did Bush listen to experts on anything?

4 Bryan { 06.22.06 at 9:16 pm }

None are so blind as those who will not see…

5 Steve Bates { 06.23.06 at 1:32 am }

If boorish behavior in a diplomatic setting were a crime, Bush would surely be convicted and assessed life without parole. Instead, we are the ones who suffer for the diplomatic atrocities he commits against world leaders.

I would hide my head in shame, but I don’t think it would do any good. When I removed my hands from my eyes, Bush would still be Bush, giving nicknames to heads of state, dragging them by the sleeve across the stage, etc. All I can do is hope that at some point the very Earth itself is offended, and opens a chasm that swallows him up, leaving all the foreign leaders around him standing, nodding their heads.

6 Bryan { 06.23.06 at 2:35 am }

His behavior is just weird. It’s rude, and he has to know it’s rude, but he does it anyway.

There are people in the White House and State Department whose entire function is to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Protocol officers throughout the American government are probably becoming alcoholics trying to survive in this environment.

When are people going to notice that he doesn’t get invited back to any country. After one visit they make sure it never happens again.

7 Steve Bates { 06.23.06 at 5:39 pm }

Bryan, Texans suffer more than most, because people assume that Bush’s behavior is conditioned by life on the ranch. I’ve known a few ranch hands and farmers in my time, including a couple of genuine cowboys, and none of them would tolerate the degree of rudeness Bush inflicts on other world leaders. Maybe he picked up the habit because he’s a spoiled brat from an obscenely wealthy family, but if he’d had my mother (herself a farmer’s daughter), he would have learned not to talk that way. It makes me sick just to think of the image of America… and incidentally of Texas… he projects to the world. Natalie Maines got it right.

8 Bryan { 06.23.06 at 7:04 pm }

LBJ was a real Texan. If he wasn’t sure, he asked his wife who had no problem keeping him straight. No one has ever disciplined the Shrubbery about anything since he left the National Guard, which was probably one of the main reasons he left.

He’s an embarrassment to anyone associated with him.

9 djhlights { 06.23.06 at 8:43 pm }

Considering his Secretary of State is supposed to be an expert on the Cold War and the USSR this makes the State Department a laughing stock. Fox News nearly anointed her the heir to George Kennan back in 2000 when she was chosen to be National Security Advisor, yet her staff and his don’t know their history well enough to not mix metaphors.

It reminds me of this for some reason.

10 Bryan { 06.23.06 at 9:27 pm }

Condi wrote a book on Eastern Europe under the Soviets, and frankly it stunk, but I don’t think anyone fact checks any of the Shrubbery’s speeches.

My Dad was stationed at Bitburg in the late 50’s, and an uncle “drove through” the area with a guy named Patton in the 40’s, so the history of that ground was not unknown. Some people think history is whatever they want it to be.