Al-Jazeera "bombing" remark highlights Bush's incredible shrinkage

[BurtWorm]

Says Josh Marshhall.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007088.php

I'm really not quite sure what to make of this. Reading over the stories in the Daily Mirror, the Post, the BBC and other news outlets, there doesn't seem much question that there is a memo/transcript and that it does have Mr. Bush discussing bombing Al Jazeera HQ. What's unclear is whether he was serious or not. That of course makes all the difference in the world. And there's just no way to judge without seeing just what it said.

With my very limited sense of how George W. Bush operates in private, I think it does sound the like the sort of thing the president might joke about or say merely for effect, though I wouldn't say that shows him in such a great light either.

The only thing that strikes me as odd is that a diplomatic aide would memorialize this exchange between if it were merely a joking aside. Did the aide either think Bush was serious or perhaps found the discussion so disturbing that he chose to note it down?

The one thing that I think you can say with some surety is that this is yet one more example of the president's rapidly diminishing power, credibility and prestige. Six months, not to mention a year ago, I think there's little reason to believe a paper like the Post would have touched such a story and touch it in a way that entertains the possibility that President Bush actually had to be talked down by Tony Blair from bombing a news network whose editorial line he found too critical.

-- Josh Marshall

[leveymg]

1. I am beginning to believe that Dubya's contract expires 12/31/05

Everything that was previously being ignored is now the focus of attention -- from coverage of Congressional anti-war statements (there were some before Murtha) to footage of American military vehicles blowing up in Iraq to symbolic faux pas like the locked door incident in China.

It's like Pravda -- the powers that be have ordered a change in Party line, and the corporate mass media is delivering the imagery that goes along with it.

Bush-Cheney were given their walking papers last summer, and the orderly departure process is already well advanced.

[Straight Shooter]

2. "Who will rid me of this meddlesome Al-Jazeera headquarters?"

Many a truth is spoken in jest. I think bush was deadly serious and testing if his poodle would take the bait.

[madrchsod]

3. the us military did bomb the al-zazeera offices

in kabuh and baghdad.....hmmmmmmm

[kansasblue]

4. yes 'by mistake' if I recall.

they have zero credibility on this one.

[leveymg]

5. There was that tank round that targeted the Palestine Hotel

in Baghdad killing Spanish and Georgian journalists, and several other attacks on unembedded journalists that same day in April 2003. Lets not forget that the Air Force also levelled the state TV studios and transmitter in Belgrade, and "accidentally" bombed the Chinese embassy there.

This is part of a pattern and practice.

[BurtWorm]

6. I recall their brazenly talking about taking out communications lines

in the first days of the war, and there being some noise against it from a few who dared to be critical. The administration argument was that it would make the regime cripple faster, and the criticism was that cutting off communications would make it more difficult to...um, communicate?...with the Iraqi people once occupation was under way. It is probably also against Geneva conventions to hit media facilities.

[Oceansaway]

7. i remember that too......

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. That was in 2001 and 2003, in 'war zones'

when he had the cover of 'collateral damage', or "our troops were fired on from that building" (which is the excuse he used for the Baghdad bombing). To bomb Al Jazeera in Qatar in 2004 (ie a peaceful allied country), Bush presumably would have had to set up a 'false flag' operation. If he did contemplate it, I'm amazed he'd discuss it with Blair - widening the conspiracy just seems a risk, and I woudln't have thought the UK could have added anything to the conspiracy.