BUSH TELLS PUTIN, "JUST WAIT"

Oh. My God. The Middle East is exploding in violence. Hezbollah and Israel are in open warfare along the Lebanese border and coast, exchanging rocket strikes, and armed gunmen dressed in Iraqi police uniforms have kidnapped the head of the Iraq Olympic Committee and about 20 others one day after the Iraqi Olympic wrestling coach was murdered.

And our pResident continues to deny reality. In a press conference with Russia's Putin in the leadup to the G8, the following exchange:

Under domestic pressure to make public criticism of Russia’s alleged backsliding on democracy, Mr Bush largely limited himself to acknowledging that the two men had discussed their “governing philosophies”.

He added: “I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq where there’s a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same thing.”

But in a jibe at the violence and turmoil in the country, Mr Putin replied that Russia would “certainly not want to have the same kind” of democracy as Iraq.

Amid laughter, Mr Bush said: “Just wait.”

Bush clearly believes that fifty years from now there will be a "Bush Memorial" in Washington, D.C. honoring his successful vision of spreading democracy throughout the world at the end of a gun. Plaqes will bear evidence of the wisdom of his words: "Bring it on." "You see, not only did the attacks help accelerate a recession, the attacks reminded us that we are at war." —George W. Bush, on the Sept. 11 attacks, Washington, D.C., June 8, 2005. "And the second way to defeat the terrorists is to spread freedom. You see, the best way to defeat a society that is — doesn't have hope, a society where people become so angry they're willing to become suiciders, is to spread freedom, is to spread democracy." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., June 8, 2005. "Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 17, 2004. "We actually misnamed the war on terror. It ought to be the Struggle Against Ideological Extremists Who Do Not Believe in Free Societies Who Happen to Use Terror as a Weapon to Try to Shake the Conscience of the Free World." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug. 6, 2004.

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." —George W. Bush, Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005.

Tags: Middle East violence, Bush, Putin