When I turned on the Today show this morning (I know, my fault), this was the story they were talking about at the top of the show:
ST. PETERSBURG, July 17 — President Bush should know that in Russia, someone is always listening. In this case, it was the rest of the world.
During a lunch with other leaders at the Group of Eight summit on Monday, Bush was caught on a live microphone talking in tough, occasionally profane terms with British Prime Minister Tony Blair about the latest conflict in the Middle East. Bush criticized the position taken by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, and said he would soon send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region.
“What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over,” Bush says with his mouth full as he buttered a piece of bread.
“Who, Syria?” asked Blair, standing next to the seated Bush.
“Right,” Bush said. Within an hour, the remarks were broadcast on television stations, radio stations and websites around the world.
The conversation, while consistent with Bush’s politer public remarks, offered a rare glimpse of the president in a less-guarded moment at a major diplomatic event, capturing his style of interaction with one of his closest allies.
The media, of course, seems all a twitter about the fact that Bush used an expletive, but fails to address the merits of his statement to Blair. He is, I think, completely correct. What rational person would say that Israel does not have the right to pursue and destroy a terrorist army, Hezbollah, kidnapping soldiers and lobbing missiles over its northern border ? Yes, its a tragedy that Lebanon is being victimized once again, but the blame lies not in Tel Aviv, but with the leadership of Hezbollah and its sponsor Syria, which also has an interest in seeing a destablized Lebanon.
Bush went on to have some not-so-nice things to say about U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s role in the current crisis:
While U.S. officials said the G-8 statement envisioned Israel taking those actions only after Hamas and Hezbollah complied, the statement did not set an explicit order. Annan and other world leaders have been pushing for a unilateral end to hostilities. In his lunchtime remarks to Blair, Bush expressed irritation at Annan’s position.
“What about Kofi? That seems odd,” Bush said, according to transcripts assembled by journalists here. “I don’t like the sequence of it. His attitude is basically ceasefire and [then] everything else happens. You know what I’m saying?”
Bush later returned to the subject of Annan. “I felt like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen,” the president said, referring to Syrian President Bashir Assad. “We’re not blaming Israel. We’re not blaming the Lebanese government.
But the U.N. is blaming Israel, just like they have for the past 50 years.
The Anchoress sums up my thoughts on this pretty well:
For the record, I am neither shocked nor appalled that powerful people use coarse language. And I don?t much care, either.
Watch the video of this fun little exchange courtesy of Allahpundit.
