zondag 3 september 2006

September 3, 2006

This will be a scrap bag of commentary this week. I had a medical check up at the U.S. Navy facility at Bethesda recently and my doctor was discussing Bush. He does not like him at all but, I stress, he is not Bush’s doctor. It is the general belief that Bush is probably suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder. He told me about this (you can check it out on Google) and listed some of the symptoms some of his colleagues (who have actually had contact with the President) noted. The symptoms are:

1. frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.

2. a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation

3. identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self

4. impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating).

5. recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior

6. affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)

7. chronic feelings of emptiness

8. inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)

9. transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.

I am not now a medical person and make no claims to being one but much of this hits the nail right on the head. Make of it what you want.

Bush has run head on into the persona of General John Abizaid. The General is very competent in Middle East affairs and has run right up against Bush in public. Bush said there was no civil war in Iraq and the next day, the General flatly contradicted him. Abizaid, who is Lebanese and speaks the language, has stated that we need to win over the Arabs like Hezbollah does by taking care of the civil population and not just slaughtering them. Bush does not like the General and says unkind things about him…behind his back. The top military people, mostly Army and USMC brass, detest Bush and if he continues to ignore them while insulting them, he is in for serious problems. Note that Rumsfeld, whom the professionals hate as a stupid and pompous ass, ordered two armored units to be transferred from Germany to Iraq…and was promptly ignored. The units never left Germany and Rumsfeld has kept this insubordination very quiet. The Bush people have lost their power to frighten, both on the domestic and foreign fronts and that does not bode well for the next two years. When you have a highly irate, nasty President screeching at a public press conference that he will never leave Iraq as long as he is in office, this is a sign of severe psychological problems. There is not even an attempt at diplomacy, only a shrill child screaming child determined to have his way.

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