Remember Bush?

The President? He's not getting much press these days. Everyone's eager to close his chapter in US politics, and, well, you tend to lose credibility when false claims, denials, and nonsense saturate all of your speeches. As obnoxious as our drawn-out election process is, I guess it's better than focusing on the present.

Anyway, he's in the Middle East right now. I think I heard that it's his first trip to Israel and Palestine. On NPR about a week ago, Bush declared that he expected to see a peace treaty between Israel and Palestine before he leaves office. A bomb slammed into Beirut earlier today and Israeli killed 19 people in Gaza raids.

I'm not even sure Mr. Bush takes himself seriously anymore. It's one thing to be hopeful about peace, and make a concerted effort to foster peace in the Holy Land. Bush's assertion that there will be peace in the next eleven months, though, comes across as cynical and arrogant. It was his first trip to Israel, the tension in the Middle East is extremely old and extremely complicated, and the United States has done much to fan the flames in that part of the world under the Bush Administration. He can't truly believe himself when he makes such cavalier statements, can he?