Sir Lancelot: Look, my liege!
King Arthur: Camelot!
Sir Galahad: Camelot!
Sir Lancelot: Camelot!
Patsy: It’s only a model …
King Arthur: Shh!*

Our own King is just as deluded, it seems.

Speaking before the US Naval War College, an audience usually friendly to his words, Mr Bush did a little compare and contrast between Iraq and Israel. The news-at-large has picked this up as “Israel Model For Iraq, Says Bush.” On the face of it, this sounds ridiculous, even given the source. Really, how could anyone gaze longingly at the political design of a country so severely and violently divided? It was only after skimming the transcript of Mr Bush’s speech that I saw what was actually being said. Read with me …

Our success in Iraq must not be measured by the enemy’s ability to get a car bombing into the evening news. No matter how good the security, terrorists will always be able to explode a bomb on a crowded street. In places like Israel, terrorists have taken innocent human life for years in similar attacks. The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy that is not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities. And that’s a good indicator of success that we’re looking for in Iraq: the rise of a government that can protect its people, deliver basic services for all its citizens, and function as a democracy even amid violence.*

Now I see it. Israel isn’t enviable because it works, but because violence has become so commonplace that an everyday bombing is no longer newsworthy. Instead, Israel just keeps on coming on, come hell or high water or pipe bombs or suicide vests. If it is a model for anything, it is a model of complacency at worst, or resigned acquiescence at best.

Does he even realize how many friends we won’t be making by saying that Iraq needs to follow the example of the single country that most countries in the Arab world hate above and beyond how much they hate one another? And before anyone leaves a comment they’ll regret, don’t even start with me about any ill feelings I might have about Israel. I have none. Even an blithering idiot can see that Israel is far from a perfect democracy.

Our President, however, cannot.

And what are we to make of that second sentence? “No matter how good the security, terrorists will always be able to explode a bomb on a crowded street.” This is a hell of a statement coming from a man who never hesitates to hang a sign of “surrender” on all who oppose our continued involvement in Iraq. Just last night, he was passing out more white flags.

“There’s a group in the opposition party who are willing to retreat before the mission is done,” [Bush] said. “They’re willing to wave the white flag of surrender. And if they succeed, the United States will be worse off, and the world will be worse off.”*

So we can’t surrender … but I suppose exploding cars fall within acceptable levels of tolerance, eh?

We have this King for another 571 days. Given the nonsense he’s spouting now, I shudder to think of what might come out of his mouth in the months to come.

(via Hans the Cat)