Loose Cannons

Difficult

"You have to undercut the perception of occupation in Iraq. It's very difficult to do that when you have 150,000-plus, largely Western, foreign troops occupying the country." — Major-General Douglas Lute, director of operations at US Central Command, quoted in the London Financial Times, August 24.

Well past the limit of his attention span

"You know, I'm going to fly out of here in a minute, but I want you to know that I'm not going to forget what I've seen. I understand the devastation requires more than one day's attention." — Emperor George Bush II, speaking at New Orleans International Airport, September 2.

A blessing in disguise I

"The good news is — and it's hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of [multi-millionaire Mississippi Republican Senator] Trent Lott's house — he's lost his entire house — there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." — Emperor Bush, talking to homeless residents of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast town of Mobile, Alabama, September 2.

A blessing in disguise II

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." — Emperor Bush's mother, Barbara Bush, referring to 15,000 homeless refugees from New Orleans camped in the Houston Astrodome during her visit there on September 5.

From Green Left Weekly, September 14, 2005.

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From GLW issue 642