Bush: Iraqis don't appreciate our sacrifices

[elucidator]

Who was the guy was talking “I wouldn’t be surprised to see a statue of GW Bush in downtown Baghdad”?

[RTFirefly]

@Talon Karrde

But that’s different from the arrogance of saying something like “Those ingrates don’t appreciate what we’ve done for them”.

You’re right. But apparently it’s not the first time he’s expected appreciation from the Iraqis:

As columnist Sidney Blumenthal points out in Salon today: “Bush’s demand for expressions of gratitude from the Iraqis is not a new one. In his memoir, L. Paul Bremer III, head of the ill-fated Coalition Provisional Authority, records that above all other issues Bush stressed the need for an Iraqi government to declare its thanks.”

Peter W. Galbraith has more in his article on Bremer’s book for the New York Review of Books: Bremer "had lunch with the President before leaving for Baghdad – a meeting joined by the Vice President and the national security team – but no decision seems to have been made on any of the major issues concerning Iraq’s future. Instead, Bremer got a blanket grant of authority that he clearly enjoyed exercising. The President’s directions seem to have been limited to such slogans as ‘we’re not going to fail’ and ‘pace yourself, Jerry.’ In Bremer’s account, the President was seriously interested in one issue: whether the leaders of the government that followed the CPA would publicly thank the United States. . . .

"Bush had only one demand: ‘It’s important to have someone who’s willing to stand up and thank the American people for their sacrifice in liberating Iraq.’ According to Bremer, he came back to this single point three times in the same meeting. Similarly, Ghazi al-Yawar, an obscure Sunni Arab businessman, became Bush’s candidate for president of Iraq’s interim government because, as Bremer reports, Bush had ‘been favorably impressed with his open thanks to the Coalition.’ "

[ElvisL1ves]

Participants said Mr. Bush appeared serious and engaged

Has it really come to the point where that can be said of a President and it’s meant positively?

[RTFirefly]

@ElvisL1ves

Has it really come to the point where that can be said of a President and it’s meant positively?

'Fraid so.

Letterman: “According to reports, Fidel Castro is alert and being briefed. And I’m thinking, why didn’t we get a president like that?”