As if he hasn't done enough harm...

Today the President of the United States prevented me from eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken. I began to walk in the direction of that fast food establishment when I saw many, many Indonesian policemen standing before a road block. Just beyond them, I could see people jumping around with signs in hand. A policeman said, "American?" And I said, "Yep." He said, "Danger. Go back." So I did what he said and returned to school and skipped lunch. The consequences of his failed foreign policy are impossibly far reaching.

Thanks to Jamison for commenting. I think the media fails to see Bush's remark vis a vis Vietnam as a gaffe because it is a very shallow media indeed. I have real doubts as to the intelligence of nearly everyone who appears on commericial television news. First off, I doubt anyone of actual substance would consider television journalism to be actual journalism. Second, said person of substance would also have to be physically attractive. The chances are too slim to matter. Kerry's "botched joke", as I said before, stumbled upon a truth Americans don't like to talk about.

Nevertheless, let's consider the two statements for a moment, Kerry seemed to say something that we don't like to admit about our armed forces (that they are comprised poor people with few other opportunities), that is not allowable. That must be contradicted, belittled, stamped down. Bush's statement says something that many would like to believe about our armed forces (that they are unbeatable, only poor leadership can explain any failure). Of course, that's not thought to be controversial controversial. To a generation of reporters who learnt their history from Rambo, it must make perfect sense. That he said it in Vietnam makes no difference largely because Americans and Westerners have always suggested, in fact asserted outright, that the nations we colonize and control are filled with people who do not know what's good for them. Take up the White Man's Burden...