George W. Bush and the issues of foreign policy and the environment

I think I first realized that our President had no idea what a "foreign policy" even consisted of when he first used the phrase "axis of evil" when referring to three countries that weren't even an axis. We scientists are touchy about terms like "axis" being thrown around so jauntily.

But how a Communist dictatorship, a Shiite theocracy and a Sunni-led secular dictatorship formed anything like a holistic "whatever" is still beyond the likes of me.

But worse, Mr. Bush had no idea how he planned to deal with his nutty (I know of no better word for it) "axis" anymore then than he now knows how to deal with the one-third of that axis within which we are knee deep.

And two-thirds of that "axis of evil" is running wild with ICBM testing and nuclear weapons development while our State Department and Defense [sic] Department are trying to sort out Sunnis from Shiites in Baghdad.

Meanwhile ... the entire Middle East is devolving into something that Newt Gingrich and Fox News are characterizing as World War III, Armageddon and/or the end of times. (Well guess what? The Global Warming brought on by fossil fuel emissions just might bring on that "end of days.") Pastors nationwide are having a field day on the "end of days" theme while Bush lives in la-la land believing in his heart of hearts that his Medicare Drug Plan is working and that the only issues of concern to Americans are gay marriage bans, embryonic stem cell research and the design of the 9-11 Memorial in NYC.

And I think I got a glimmer of his thinking in the area of Global Warming when he said "probably not!" when asked if her were planning on seeing, An Inconvenient Truth, while continuing to push for additional drilling in Alaska (and elsewhere) and logging in national forests. Lord love a duck!

Get serious, Mr. Bush! Let's show some initiative in the areas of foreign policy and the environment -- positive initiatives, like (1) supporting a meaningful and immediate cease fire in Lebanon/Israel, (2) redeploying our forces out of Iraq ... in the coming week, and (3) signing the Kyoto accords before you forget what they were even about.

And for the love of licorice, learn what the differences are between Sunnis and Shiites (yes, I read Peter Galbraith's book and the account of your pre-invasion meeting in the White House!) -- and further, realize that peoples around the world (like in the cartoon above) all wish that everyone thought as they did.

Well, they don't! And unlike your oft-quoted wish ... you are not a dictator!

Wake up now and get serious!