Down To Business

It’s a quite different picture – different cast of characters, different scene altogether, but Bush at a videoconference will always remind me of this.

Is that really Cheney? They say it’s Cheney, but it could be any fat bald guy in a quail hunting vest.

derchairmanspinne(aus(dem)g(h)rab(e)

“Too little, too late.”

Why so few people at a large table? Seems like every other person didn’t show, and that’s why everyone is sitting so far apart from each other. The empty chair at the end of the table is telling–why wasn’t it removed? Or is it left there to symbolise Cheney? His televised image casts a ghastly pall over the proceedings.
Based on my own experience in conferences, this one has all the earmarks of a classic time burner. Papers are shuffled, things are said, information is presented, but, in the end, nothing changes. But you go through these motions because it is expected of you. And that’s the feel of the Bush Administration: going through the motions, but having no real passion or even interest in the proceedings.
If this was an important meeting, I’m sure Cheney could have cancelled or rescheduled a fund-raiser or two in order to jet back to DC for a little face time with the generals. His half-presence signals his sense of priorities.

The Veep wearing a bullet proof vest on the tube, the circuitous ramblings of Rummy quick to play down expectations: “There’s no doubt in my mind but that some of those projections we won’t make; it will be later, or even earlier in some instances. And in some cases, once we meet the projection, we may have to go back and do it again.”
And look W’s sporting a new suit, ho hum can we move on…

This is pure photo op.

I think I figured it out.
http://www.pearlswine.blogspot.com

Reminds me of a Kubrick film…can’t quite put my finger on it.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Reminds me of a Kubrick film…Dr. Strangelove…don’t know why…
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Looking here we have what may be a subtle nod towards the way the whole war has been conducted. In the photo I see only two miltary uniforms and six business suits. If this is what Bush means when he says he listens to his generals, well all two of them need to do more talking. The thing is though there is no indication at what point in the meeting this photo was taken. The idea conveyed may be that this is how has always been during the conflict 3 suits to 1 uniform in the forming of the plans.
Also besides Bush’s suit being of a different tone then everyone in the room, he is the only one other then the big giant head at the end of the room to have nobody sitting next to him. The suit Bush is wearing along with his hands and facial expression say he’d rather be out clearing brush on his ranch, not trying to put together a country he’s torn apart.

Is it just me, or is the room odly devided? Bush is sitting across the generals, while Rummy is sitting with accross the the civilians and the big talking TV head? It seems like to entirely different conversations. Are the GI there to keep the Kid happy while the growups talk?
As for the good Dr. here is a relevant quote:
“Ripper: Mandrake, I suppose it never occurred to you that while we’re chatting here so enjoyably, a decision is being made by the President and the Joint Chiefs in the war room at the Pentagon. And when they realize there is no possibility of recalling the wing, there will be only one course of action open: total commitment… Mandrake, do you recall what Clemenceau once said about war?
Mandrake: No. I don’t think I do sir, no.
Ripper: He said war was too important to be left to the Generals. When he said that, fifty years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination, communist subversion, and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”

Rafael, I enjoyed the Dr. Strangelove reference. It was perfect. But I was watching “The Hiltler Channel”, (that is what I call the History Channel), this weekend. They showed a movie clip of Hitler I have seen many times before. It is undoubtably a Nazi propaganda film clip. Hitler is at a map table with his Generals. All are pouring over a map of the battlefield. A General in front of Hitler has a pen in his hand and is making marks on the map. Hitler takes the pen out of the Generals hands and draws some marks on the map. Then he makes a jesture with the pen like “see that? That is the way we will do it!” At least Hilter and his Generals looked like they were actually doing something. Here our leaders just seem to be shuffeling some papers. And as for the henney in the video I will take your word for it. i can’t tell who it is. But if it is Cheney, my guess is it is a video and not a live feed. For we we know it is a still shot.

Rafael, I enjoyed the Dr. Strangelove reference. It was perfect. But I was watching “The Hiltler Channel”, (that is what I call the History Channel), this weekend. They showed a movie clip of Hitler I have seen many times before. It is undoubtably a Nazi propaganda film clip. Hitler is at a map table with his Generals. All are pouring over a map of the battlefield. A General in front of Hitler has a pen in his hand and is making marks on the map. Hitler takes the pen out of the Generals hands and draws some marks on the map. Then he makes a jesture with the pen like “see that? That is the way we will do it!” At least Hilter and his Generals looked like they were actually doing something. Here our leaders just seem to be shuffeling some papers. And as for the Cheney in the video I will take your word for it. I can’t tell who it is. But if it is Cheney, my guess is it is a recorded video and not a live feed. For all we know it is a still shot.

I call the History Channel the War Channel (and increasinly the Imperial Channel, I see an distrubing trend of shows praising the “Great” empires of the past, very disturbing). This seems to be a pre-conference shot. Abizaid is shuffling papers, Pace is joking with the Preznit but the real work seems to be at the other end. I think the Generals are their to baby sit Shrub while the adults are talking about the important stuff.

Question: does it mean anything that there is no token minority in the scene, just the evil white men in suits?
Bonus question: Is that Stephen Colbert sitting to the right of Donny Pentagon?

It does look as though Bush is playing with the generals while the work is being done at the end of the table.
And is that a remote control on the table next to Bush’s right arm? This could explain a great deal–perhaps Bush figures if he doesn’t like what he sees in Iraq, he just changes the channel.

Kier a bonus answer, that innocuous looking fellow alongside Rummy is Condi’s latest appointment.
David Michael Satterfield is the Secretary of State on Iraq (Gov employee for 26 years)he was caught up in the AIPAC/Larry Franklin Pentagon mole case. The indictment however did not accuse Satterfield of any wrong doing, although he discussed secret national security matters in two meetings with Steven J. Rosen.
Steve J Rosen was the policy director of AIPAC for 23 years. He is now under indictment for spying for Israel and has been fired.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is the most powerful special interest group in the United States with 100,000 members in 50 States responsible since 1948 in raising over $108 billion for Israel. (info mostly from wiki)
A fly over by the Colbert Eagle however might liven up the chicken hawks in this somber setting.

JT thanks for the thorough bonus answer. I’m sure the whole spying thing was only because they wanna be like US.
But for the date, the dude on the tube could easily pass for Arek Sharon, by the way.

Remember that scene in Star Wars where the Emperor appears in hologram to give instructions to Darth Vader?
Just saying…

Talking about Dr. Strangelove and Star Wars, if anyone is interested, go here:
http://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/how_i_learned

Newsflash to The New York Times per the Associated Press:
“Bush Admin. Won’t Shift Strategy in Iraq”
“Under election-year pressure to change course in Iraq, the Bush administration said *Monday* there are no plans for dramatic shifts in policy or for ultimatums to Baghdad to force progress.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2601317
Go figure.

Wow ! some wanna be, some work in progress is *Avigdor Lieberman*..”the brains behind Benjamin Netanyahu’s successful campaign.. Ariel Sharon praised him as the most capable minister in cabinets..”
Perhaps because of the apartheid or Bantustan setup he reminds me more of president Willem Botha of South Africa, 1978-1989. than W

Is that really Cheney in flak jacket on the tube? Or is it an imbed reporting yet more glorious news from our victories in Baghdad? Hmmmm……..
As gottschee pointed out, they are going thru the motions, not even trying to engage one another, simply passing time till the cameras leave. But this is a Bush pattern we have seen repeated over and over. I’d like to know when this behavior started, but we know of his college years when he barely passed (daddy wouldn’t let him leave) and idled away the time cheering the real athletes on the field. Then the NG, where he quickly got bored and went (AWOL) off in a haze of smoke to hang around daddy’s political buddies. Then there was the Harkin business that he managed to bungle and destroy. And there was the ball team where he got to play with the athletes again and when he tired of that, his friends/sponsors bought him out for a hefty profit. Gov. of Texas was probably his ideal job. He should have stayed there because so little was asked of him. The legislature did all the work on the few days that they met, leaving him free to play BMOC at last. In his recent incarnation, he’s played rancher more often than president. Now he’s bored with the president part and just wants to go home and play. What an insufferable child he is.

Margaret: This is pure photo op.
yes of course, and for that reason we must be careful not to read too much into this image ~ it is not a “real” meeting, and nothing is being decided here, by these people, in this process…
…the “real” meeting is not there, it’s here, where we sit; and the agenda is not theirs: should we change, or give the appearance of changing The War, but ours : should we change, or give the appearance of changing The Government ?
in that regard their case / this image : “Don’t condemn us for not meeting, or rightly running The War = spending your treasure and blood, for here you can plainly see the evidence in this image that we are, indeed thoughtful and thorough Administrators,” entirely fails to convey to us any sense of savoir-faire, or indeed anything more than half-hearted effort…
…this image is a hasty and reluctant bone thrown to a restive public. it is incredibly insulting to be patronized by people in power, all the more so when they have so little respect for you that they do not even bother to put on a good show for the cameras: they don’t like you, or trust you, clearly, any more than most of you don’t like them.