[NYTr] Bush's Foot-in-Mouth Disease

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Tehran Times - Oct 20, 2001
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=155256

Bush World War III rant shows he’s really lost it now

By our staff writer

George W. Bush put his foot in his mouth again when he warned of the
possibility of World War III breaking out.

The irresponsible remarks of the president of a country armed with
nuclear weapons shocked the world.

“So I’ve told people that, if you’re interested in avoiding World War
III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from
having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon,” Bush told
reporters at a White House press conference on Wednesday, exactly one
day after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tehran and expressed
support for Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.

What are we to make of the use of such language?

Either Bush has gone totally mad and now makes statements without
consulting his advisors, or the neoconservatives are dreaming of a new
world order and no longer feel compelled to hide their goal.

How can Bush talk this way when Iran’s nuclear activities are open to
inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency?

The IAEA, the UN’s only nuclear supervisory body, has announced it has
found no evidence suggesting that Iran is seeking a nuclear weapons
program, and Iran and the agency have taken constructive steps to clear
up the remaining ambiguities one by one.

The Iraq issue should serve as a lesson to Bush and those who share his
views. They attacked Iraq under the pretext that Saddam Hussein was
developing weapons of mass destruction, despite the fact that the IAEA
and former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix repeatedly announced
that they had not found any such weapons program in Iraq.

Now what has been the result? Over half a million deaths.

World leaders, scholars, peace activists, and U.S. Congressmen, both
Republicans and Democrats, should ask Bush to explain his remarks about
World War III.

And U.S. officials should put a muzzle on Bush to prevent him from
giving people the impression that the United States is the main threat
to world peace.