Bush in the Middle East

As all lame-duck Presidents do, President Bush seemed to convince himself that he will be the one who will bring peace to the Middle East (or perhaps this is case of an arsonist trying to put out his own fire). He had very strong words for both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his visit to the region last week.

But he hasn't stopped there; he's making his way to all the fun places!

Today, for instance, the President is visiting our ally, Saudi Arabia. Why? Well, knowing how flawless our record of funding and arming dubious regimes has been, there was this news: "The Bush administration will notify Congress on Monday of its intent to sell $20 billion in weapons, including precision-guided bombs, to Saudi Arabia, moving up the announcement to coincide with the president's arrival in Riyadh."

Concerned about this? Don't worry, the administration understands. They "plan to counterbalance the Saudi sale with $30 billion in military assistance to Israel — a more than 25 percent increase over the next 10 years." Oh well, now it's okay. My congressman (Rep. Weiner) and others plan to try and block the sale. But Bush is treating it like a done deal.

And another article notes that "President George W. Bush is unlikely to complain about oil prices near $100 per barrel when he meets with Saudi Arabia's king next week, even though prices have nearly doubled since the last time the two met in 2005." Well, of course not; a ho never talks back to her pimp.

Moving on to the Iranian issue, the overly-hyped Straits of Hormuz incident (prank?) seems to have re-emboldened the hawks... in talking to the Israelis, the President distanced himself from the recent NIE, even though at the time of its release they appeared to accept its reality. Suck on it, intelligence community!

And over in the United Arab Emirates, the President had nothing but praise.

As you can, peace in the Middle East is right around the corner. Thank you, Mr. President.