Feckless leader

Posted by Melissa McEwan at 1:10 PM on April 11, 2006.

Yesterday, during at appearance at Johns Hopkins School of International Studies, Bush opened it up to some unscripted Q&A, which is always a disastrous idea under the best of circumstances, but things took a terrible turn when a first-year student in South Asia studies asked him about the law governing the actions of private military contractors in Iraq.

Q …My question is in regards to private military contractors. Uniform Code of Military Justice does not apply to these contractors in Iraq. I asked your Secretary of Defense a couple months ago what law governs their actions.

THE PRESIDENT: I was going to ask him. Go ahead. (Laughter.) Help. (Laughter.)

Q I was hoping your answer might be a little more specific. (Laughter.) Mr. Rumsfeld answered that Iraq has its own domestic laws which he assumed applied to those private military contractors. However, Iraq is clearly not currently capable of enforcing its laws, much less against -- over our American military contractors. I would submit to you that in this case, this is one case that privatization is not a solution. And, Mr. President, how do you propose to bring private military contractors under a system of law?

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that very much. I wasn’t kidding -- (laughter.) I was going to -- I pick up the phone and say, Mr. Secretary, I've got an interesting question. (Laughter.) This is what delegation -- I don't mean to be dodging the question, although it’s kind of convenient in this case, but never -- (laughter.) I really will – I’m going to call the Secretary and say you brought up a very valid question, and what are we doing about it? That’s how I work. I'm -- thanks. (Laughter.)

Three years into the war, that the president still has no idea how to answer questions like this (sobbing) is just a dreadful embarrassment (blushing), not only for him, who must now be used to the shame of his own idiocy (crawling into the fetal position), but also for us, who probably ought to be used to it (sobbing), which is perhaps the most pathetic commentary of all (uncontrollable wailing).

The intrepid Crooks and Liars has the video. Be prepared to cringe in agony as you witness Dear Leader do his manic tapdance under the excruciating misapprehension that the crowd is laughing with him rather than at him.

(Crooks and Liars)

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Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.