Repères 16/10/06 - 655.000 morts en Irak (?) et la psychologie de George W. Bush

Understanding W The Man
UPI 13/10/06

"W. had his own supermarket check-out moment this week, only this variety of eerie, presidential dysfunction and detachment comes at a considerable (and still-mounting) cost in blood and treasure. The perplexing President Bush -- with his dyed-in-the-wool, patrician, East-Coast rearing; Philips Andover, Yale, Harvard-schooling yet Texan-talkin', Evangelical persona -- has offered up the most revealing statement of his presidency.

The statement reflects a philosophical basis all the president's own for his confounding and extraordinarily onerous stay-the-course policy in Iraq. 

This unscripted glimpse at W., in an age of thoroughly orchestrated public appearances, illustrates the basis for the president's extraordinary cognitive dissonance on Iraq, such as his unceasing invocations of freedom -- when freedom remains so thoroughly beside the point in the sectarian-torn, Iraqi reality. The president's statement represents much more than a gaffe or syntax error, it reflects our president, the man, and, despite a certain pathetic quality, it is of enormous consequence.

As has been reported broadly, the president, when asked by Suzanne Malveaux at a press conference about the report citing over 600,000 fatalities in connection to the Iraq War, summarily rejected the findings, claiming it had been thoroughly discredited. Then came the utterance:

"I do know that a lot of innocent people have died and it troubles me and grieves me and I applaud the Iraqis for their courage in the face of violence. I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they're willing to...you know, that there's a level of violence that they tolerate. And it's now time for the Iraqi government to work hard to bring security in neighborhoods so people can feel-you know-at peace."

Any attempt to diagram the absurdity and significance of this statement risks coming up short. Here, at any rate, is an earnest attempt at it.

The president, in referring to a war he launched, is marveling at the Iraqi society's willingness to tolerate the violence he has in effect brought to their country -- willingness and tolerate of course being the operative words. Perhaps he should next wonder why they don't ask for cake. The breadth of his misunderstanding and naivety is simply astounding..."

"...Regardless of the philosophical origins of W.'s comment, it clearly signals the hermetic closure of the president's mind and the potential for the most childish, erroneous of ideas to germinate there. It also demonstrates the likelihood of going from very, very bad to worse in Iraq -- and beyond."


Lire, Read :

Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000
Washington Post 11/10/06

Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey
Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy, Les Roberts
Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health
The Lancet 11/10/06