The Americans: They don't even listen

* maha:

"It’s seemed to me all along that the Bush White House was not a real presidential administration, but an ongoing pageant representing an administration. Bush has yet to figure out what a president of the United States actually does. Karl and Karen and the rest of his team are masters at maintaining the illusion of a presidency, and with the deference of the press and support from a loyal Republican majority in Congress it was hard to tell the difference. But now we’re going on six years with no substantive governing leadership coming out of the White House — they’re brilliant at politicking, yes, but they don’t know how to govern — and the consequences are just too plain to ignore. No amount of pageantry and lighting and staging and banners will get them out of the hole they’re in now.

I think the only way Bush could gain back some of the public support he has lost is to actually accomplish something that’s tangible. But I doubt he knows how to do that."

* maha:

"Now, I don’t think the public would back an invasion of Iran unless a new, major terrorist strike could be blamed on Iran, or if, as Steinberg suggests, a couple of American warships happened to sink in the Persian Gulf. That might do it."

does that scare you?

* john simpson at the beeb:

"It was a few weeks before the invasion of Iraq, three years ago. I was interviewing the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, in the ballroom of a big hotel in Cairo.
Shrewd, amusing, bulky in his superb white robes, he described to me all the disasters he was certain would follow the invasion.
The US and British troops would be bogged down in Iraq for years. There would be civil war between Sunnis and Shias. The real beneficiary would be the government in Iran.
"And what do the Americans say when you tell them this," I asked? "They don't even listen," he said."

actually, as i think we demonstrated in the interview with larisa, is that they (at least a faction) actually DID listen. with glee.