The Workday Liberal

There can be no worse feeling for a man accustomed to the wielding of absolute power than to be faced with the awful truth that he has become irrelevant. President Bush is having just that moment today. Mark your calendars: today the world told the President, in no uncertain terms, that what he decides really doesn't matter anymore.

There are three major events that combine to demonstrate the lame duck status of President Bush on the international stage.

First, the day following the President drawing a hard line on negotiating with Iran about Iraq, those two nations announced the signing of a security arrangement. Ouch! Next thing you know, our good buddy Canada is going to open diplomatic relations with our hated enemy Cuba... oh wait. They already have that. Well you get the point!

Second, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki snubbed the President by cancelling a planned meeting that was scheduled to take place today. Not only did he cancel that meeting, but his staff crowed that they "insisted the meeting be canceled" rather than giving some perfunctory excuse begging off for the time being.

The fact is that al-Maliki was in Jordan on schedule, but he didn't like the thought that Jordan was going to be a party to the talks. In fact, in a small way this shows again the irrelevancy of President Bush, because Jordan was going to set the agenda to include a discussion of the Palistinian/Israeli issue, and Maliki wasn't into that. The point here is that Bush wasn't setting the agenda, but King Abdullah was. Remember the good old days when Bush could just massage his way through world leaders until he reached his chair and then bogart the conversation. The Presidents 'My way or the highway, you are with us or against us' blustering has now been replaced by 'what would you like to say', 'yes sir, can we talk about this now' weedlingism. (Is that a word even? Well it is now!)

The third event proving Presdiential lame duck status on the international stage was the Foriegn minister of Pakistan saying that Nato should accept defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban! Can you imagine being the poor soul who had to tell the President this tidbit of news. Actually chances are that the President doesn't even know about that yet. The staff must be waiting for better days to drop that one on him. I'd love to be a fly on the wall of that room... at least to be a heavy armored nuclear powered bulletproof super fly, because there is certain to be some intense fireworks when the President hears that one.

The sad fact is however that President Bush continues to hold the ultimate relevancy for hundreds of thousands of servicemebers and their families. The President can pretend to be the decider of events beyond his control for the next two years, (unless he is impeached **wink wink nudge nudge**) and keep these soldiers in harms way despite all the evidence showing the folly of his ways.