Posted on 03/04/2007 4:35:57 AM PST by MadIvan
No matter how many years one spends in Washington, lunch with the president of the United States is an exciting prospect. Entering through a special door not accessible to tourist riffraff and the tight security only heighten the sense you are entering a special realm.
Ubiquitous aides guide you efficiently down corridors lined with portraits of past occupants to the Old Family Dining Room where Churchill and Roosevelt brainstormed in the second world war. With its oriental rugs and dark polished furniture, the White House is like a smart English home.
I was there to attend one of George Bush’s frequent lunches for small groups of writers, historians and journalists to discuss an issue or book that has caught his eye. It was an intimate affair: the historian Andrew Roberts and I had to squeeze our chairs together to allow the vice-president, Dick Cheney, to pull his up to the table.
“Do you think that when Gordon Brown steps into Tony Blair’s shoes our relationship with Britain will change?” I asked Cheney as we waited for the president. “I really don’t know much about Brown,” was the response.
And then in came the president. Bush is taller than he seems on television and chirpier. He is also refreshingly free of the pretence so common in this town. “Let’s eat,” he said and explained we were gathered to discuss Roberts’s book A History of the English-Speaking Peoples because “history informs the present”. His goals, he said, were to see what history can teach us today and to “pander to you powerful opinion-makers”. Such humour is typical of the man. In addition to Roberts and myself the group included the historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, neocon Norman Podhoretz and theologian Michael Novak.
The president divulged with convincing calm that when it comes to pressure, “I just don’t feel any”. Why? His constituency, he feels, is the divine presence, to whom he must answer. Don’t misunderstand: God didn’t tell him to put troops in harm’s way in Iraq; his belief only goes so far as to inform him that there is good and evil. It is the president who must figure out how to promote the former and destroy the latter. And he is confident that his policies are doing just that.
He is well aware that this view is a political nonstarter in Britain. Bush remembered that it was Alastair Campbell who was reported to have said “We don’t do God”. And he frowned as he recalled that Blair’s advisers had dissuaded him from saying “God bless you” as he sent British troops off to Iraq.
All of this led the president to turn the conversation to the old question of what exactly is “evil” and what constitutes “good”. The discussion centred on Novak’s contention that although there is indeed evil, there is no such thing as absolute good. The president didn’t buy that line. Bush’s formulation is that we are engaged in a war between absolute evil and good principles. These principles, the president said, are practised by imperfectly good men.
I then asked what the relationship of the US and the UK would be in a postBlair world. Roberts told Bush that the United States would have no problem with Brown, who is pro-American. David Cameron, was another matter, said Roberts, citing the Tory leader’s speech on the fifth anniversary of September 11, calling for an end to Britain’s “slavish” relationship with the United States.
Bush was unperturbed. The special relationship is “unbelievably powerful”, he said, and transcends such differences as exist between any president and prime minister. “Who would have thought that a left-of-centre prime minister and a conservative president could combine as we have done to try to bring democracy to Iraq?”
But the president did want to know more about the extent and reasons for the rise of antiAmerican feeling in Britain. “Is it due simply to my personality?” he wondered, half-seriously (he is unoffended when made the butt of a joke). “Is it confined to intellectuals?” asked one guest. Roberts said no British intellectual would style himself such and Bush quipped: “Neither would a Texas politician.”
The president was told that antiAmericanism was caused to some extent by dislike of Bush but was also due to the war in Iraq; antiIsrael, pro-Palestinian sentiment, laced with some covert antisemitism; and resentment of American power. I added an anecdote, recalling that my wife Cita and I abruptly left a posh London dinner party when the guests began attacking Bush and the US. “Many thanks for that, but you’d better not move to New York City or you will starve to death,” said the president, to a chorus of “Amen” from the New Yorkers at the table.
On to Roberts’s lessons of history. First: do not set a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq. That led to the slaughter of 700,000 people in India, with the killing beginning one minute after the midnight deadline. Bush wondered if there were examples of occupying forces remaining for long periods other than in Korea. Roberts suggested Malaysia where it took nine years to defeat the communists, after which the occupying troops remained for several years. And Algeria, added Bush, citing Alistair Horne’s A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 for the proposition that more Algerians were killed after the French withdrawal than during the French occupation.
Second lesson: will trumps wealth. The Romans, the tsars and other rich world powers fell to poorer ones because they lacked the will to fight and survive. Whereas the second world war was almost over before Americans saw the first picture of a dead soldier, today the steady drumbeat of media pessimism and television coverage are sapping the West’s will.
Third lesson: don’t hesitate to intern your enemies for long periods. That policy worked in Ireland and during the second world war. Release should only follow victory.
Lesson four: cling to the alliance of the English-speaking peoples. Although many nations are engaged in the coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan, troops from Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are doing the heavy lifting.
The closing note was more sombre. Roberts told Bush that history would judge him on whether he had prevented the nuclearisation of the Middle East. If Iran gets the bomb, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries would follow. The only response was a serious frown and a nod.
One hour after we had taken our seats the president said, “Have to go to work”, mingled for a few minutes, and left. I was left with the impression that he is a man comfortable in his own skin; whose religious faith guides him in his search for the good. Unlike his television persona he is a fluent speaker and well read. Ultimately he believes that the president must be “the decider”, and that’s fine with him.
Most of the troops sent by other countries are staying out of combat, doing support work. When he mentions "heavy lifting", he is talking about combat.
The relationship with Australia is also very strong. The US, UK, and Australia have a very special intelligence relationship.
We really have been lucky to have him these past 7 years. I don't agree with him on everything (who does?) but we really are LUCKY that he's been at the helm versus Kerry or Gore. *SHIVER*
I think History will judge him kindly. Good article. :)
How refreshing. Thanks for posting.
The media has relentlessly misrepresented who the President is year after year after year. Instead of being skeptical, so many people just eat up anything and everything the Old Media feeds them.
Thanks I'm bumping it for later
Just when I think the whole world has gone mad you come along and post an incredibly relevant, thoughtful piece of actual journalism. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind words regarding our chosen leader....President Bush....may we make as wise a choice with our next leader....Pray for that.
Unfortunately, the reason for your pity is due to the fault of our media.
^ ^ ^
You know damned well that Arab terrorists are crossing our leaky borders and that George Bush has blocked any meaningful effort to stop it in direct violation of his oath of office. He signed the legislation to build a fence and then didn't plan any spending in his budget. DOJ and ICE under his "leadership" have done more to intimidate the Border Patrol than drug runners and human traffikers.
If you don't get than then I don't care what you think of it. I'll support a candidate who'll keep the creeps out of the country instead of letting them in and building a police state capable of depriving my liberty supposedly to chase them down.
I think Rush's subs are all under contract.
The one they use the most is Roger Hedgecock (here in San Diego) who works for another Clear Channel station (KOGO-600). They tried to get Roger to go national for years, but he refused to leave San Diego. Now, he has received a huge contract with Clear Channel .. and subs for Rush - which gives him national exposure. It was a smart move on Roger's part.
I believe the other subs are also a part of Clear Channel. I never listen to them .. I'd rather go home and listen to re-runs of Rush on my computer. I bought an MP3 but I haven't set it up to download Rush's programs yet.
If you do find out Roberts is on CSPAN - please ping me - but realize I'm gone during the day - working.
Absolutely. Many--if not most--Americans would think that feces sandwiches are a delicacy if they read it in the press or see it on TV.
PS: The 9/11 terrorists came here legally and did not cross the Mexican borders.
Walter Williams makes a pretty good guest host, too.
BookTV.org is only on CSpan2 from Saturday morning - Monday morning. I've made a note to ping you if I'm lucky enough to catch Andrew Roberts on again.
It's the caricature they hate. Of course, they don't bother to find out that it is a caricature, because it represents so precisely everything they dislike.
But FR has been guilty of the same behavior, many times.
"It was not the British who wanted partition, it was Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who demanded an independent Pakistan."
And who do you think was backing Mohammed Ali Jinnah all the way?
Bush is smart, and Roberts' suggestions and warnings are dead on.
Bush is smart, and Roberts' suggestions and warnings are dead on.
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