The truth hurts. I feel really bad for Mr. Bush. He seems to be having a tough time with it. The American way of life is why he sacrificed 4,000+ troops. Part of our way of life is freedom of speech. Why is he so angry that Kanye exercised this right... because maybe... the truth hurts?

I'd like to know why his admittance of authorising torture isn't prominent news. He's admitting authorising an illegal act and surely such an admittance should see him being arrested for human rights abuses and/or war crimes.

I presume he's genuine, but if so, it reveals the morality of a religious zealot.

Its not what you do that matters, but the motive!

Reckless wars or plain incompetence is fine, as long as its done with a pure heart.

Calling him a racist, was questing his motive and whether he had a pure heart, which is distressing for a 'born again christian'.

Watched Chanel 4's War In Iraq:Which Side Are You On ? http://www.channel4.com/programmes/war-on-iraq-which-side-are-you-on/4od...
last night.Makes interesting viewing in retrospect.

Mehdi, if someone suggested you were were a racist you would be rightly offended. If someone suggested you were letting people die just because they were black then you would feel disgusted. I find it totally reasonable that this was an all-time low. Your blind hatred for Bush and your obsession with Iraq warps every single word you write. A cheap shot that degrades you.

At least jack the ripper wasn't a racist!

For George W Bush's near-supine role in Hurricane Katrina, watch the video here:

Video shows Bush Katrina warning: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4765058.stm

Methinks the former pres doth protest too much.

Sam Dale

But Mehdi has been called racist. He has been recorded saying that unbelievers are like cattle, you can find the clips on youtube. Now this and other similar statements were apparently taken out of context, however this did lead to people says that Mehdi was a racist and/or a bigot. Now I think Mehdi was offended by this but I don't think it represents an all time low.

What George Bush typifies is the all too common sanctimonious PC white liberal who is very concerned that everyone believes he has the right PC attitudes towards ethnic minories and others but who is in reality unconcerned about real human suffering. He represents the moral narcissism that lies behind much bien pensant thinking. I suspect that he has more in common with certain sections of the liberal left than they would care to admit.

Kanye West, as a black person, had every right to say what he said on how he perceived Bush's treatment of the predominantly black people of New Orleans.....freedom of speech and all that.

I don't know whether Bush is a racist or not, what is clear is that he failed miserably, people died because of his failure to act and he appeared to not care.

44% of Americans blamed Bush directly in an ABC poll.

The Govt was found to have failed at all levels in following investigations.

For those who time seems to have erased the memory of how badly the people of New Orleans were failed, might I suggest Spike Lee's film 'When the levees broke'

WORLD HEGEMONY: AT WHAT PRICE?

Hegemony has a number of equally unpleasant synonyms, to say the least, such as domination, subjugation, control, supremacy, power, authority, etc. Call it what you will it always engenders violence and consequent bloodletting, war crimes, misery, suffering, torture, annihilation, and even genocide to those subjected to it, yet, it doesn’t always achieve the desired results that the predatory power had hoped for. Nevertheless, if it does, it may do so for only a limited amount of time, albeit a century or more eventually, the subjugated will break the chains of submission and avenge.

Since time immemorial the battle has been fought, first between tribes, then between states and now between continents for this very purpose; to dominate the “others”. Ancient as well as modern history shows, man (and I think we all agree that the urge to subjugate is an idiosyncrasy unique to the male of the species) has always felt the need to dominate his counterpart either physically if not mentally, or both, much the same way other creatures of “lower” species do such as apes, mammals, and even the lowly insect. We’d like to think that we differ from vermin or even our genetic cousins, the apes, but as far this particular trait is concerned, I beg to differ. It seems we have been bio-genetically preprogrammed to pick up the battle ax, pull the trigger, or just push the “button” as soon as we deem the opportunity present.

If this be true, isn’t it time we sat down and reasoned like the rational creatures that we claim to be and solved territorial, religious, and other conflicts including, and in particular, those provoked by the urge to appropriate earth’s natural resources or settle territorial disputes in a peaceful manner, i.e., by means of dialogue and negotiation?

Witness the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq and later the invasion of the latter unfortunate country by one of the greatest subjugators of modern history, the U.S.A. In the last half a century alone this mega-power has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in Iraq alone, thousands of civilian victims in Afghanistan. Not to forget the equally deplorable numbers of deaths as a consequence of one nation trying to force its “democracy” on another state, i.e., Vietnam, and the atrocities committed by this very same global-power, covertly or overtly, in other continents namely, Latin America and Africa.

Most prominent in the news, mass media, including the internet, the illegal invasion of Iraq by the USA, is of course not the only case of (illegal) aggression and consequent invasion as well as occupation of one country by another. The list is long and it includes great as well as lesser powers in ancient as well as modern history. We don’t have to be reminded of the Peloponnesian wars of the Greeks, or the mutual invasions by the Persians and the Macedonians under Alexander the Great (great to us but not for the Persians), or the conquest of much of what is known today as Western Europe by the Romans, under the various Caesars, etcetera.

In the span of our own millennium, short as it may be, there are plenty of examples of bullying and terrorizing of countries by their larger and more powerful neighbors such as the case between Georgia and Ossetia/Russia, Russia’s brutal domination of the Chechen Republic or its incursion into Afghanistan in the last years of the former millennium. The Palestinian/Jewish conflict, Turkey’s punishing of Kurdish dissident/separatists, the ongoing legacies of the conflicts between Balkan countries, Indonesian suppression of the Papuan and the Moluccan people, or the ongoing subjugation of Iraq, Afghanistan as well as the pounding of Pakistani territories, the threats to invade Iran, and de facto occupation of numerous other lands by the most formidable of all powers, the United States of America.

Ironically, the latter country having been founded on the principles of equality, human rights, and the one of the most important element of its constitution, the writ of habeas corpus, denies these rights to its victims. Witness the euphemistically called “extraordinary renditions” that amount to nothing other than the kidnapping of NON-US CITIZENS, foreigners THUS, by the United States and the torturing of these individuals either by proxy (letting other states do it), or in special detention centers, such as Guantanamo prison.

One might wonder how a country with such high moral standards if not pretensions, at least in its written constitution, could forget itself and subject half of the globe’s population since its emergence as a world power after the first world war, to its domination for the sole purpose of securing, for itself, what it calls “the American way of life”. This amounts to the unlimited and unbridled consumption of the earth’s (usually someone else’s) natural resources, namely oil and other minerals.

It’s not the first time that someone pleas for the halt to these bellicose and bloody crimes. Man’s inhumanity to man is as old as humanity itself as mentioned already. Praiseworthy efforts have been made to prevent wars, decimation, and genocide, in the form of treaties and, or, resolutions such as the Treaty of Versailles, the Geneva Convention, the Treaty of Rome, Dayton Agreement, Oslo Accords, the constitution of the United Nations and when needed, resolutions convened by this largely ineffective supra-organization.

However, as we all have seen and continue to witness, it does not keep rapacious powers from attacking its near or distant neighbors, does it?

Isn’t it time then, that the world, under the aegis of the abovementioned organization (the U.N.) exert pressure on world leaders to cease all aggressions against the aforementioned states as well as any other present or future victims and enter into dialogue and, or, negotiations to settle disputes, accusations or any other form of altercation in a peaceful manner?

Isn’t it time that the United Nations, a sluggish and toothless giant, be reinvigorated and given the authority it needs in order to prevent or settle international conflict before it happens of thereafter?

Isn’t it time the UN be given the clout it needs to not only draft legislation but to enforce it to?

Isn’t it time the International Court of Justice do exactly what its name implies and take those directly or indirectly responsible for crimes of war to trial, and pass judgment as well as punishment on them, regardless of whether he/she be head of a distant and insignificant country or the head of state of the most powerful ones?

Isn’t it time this happened?

Why all the Mahdi-bashing? He's not calling GWB a racist, just describing that Kanye did, and GWB's response. Mahdi is quite right, GWB's warmongering and torturing for corporate interests are much worse.

Having Condi and Powell in the Cabinet doesn't mean anything re racism. Besides, anyone with a brain can see that GWB hates POOR people above all. Especially poor Democrat voters.

George Who??
Ah yes I remember that dick head who went to Iraq
to find WMD.

As subsequent event have shown it doesn't matter who is president, you always get an US American.

By the way Argentinians are Americans too. In fact there are a lot of nations in America.

My preference is to use US. After all one doesn't call Britain Europeans.

Not being a European or an American I often wonder why Britain has an aversion to being part of Europe.

I never read boosk by politicians. I mean why would I want to read crap from a crap person.

I think Ricardo has got it right. George appinted Condeeleza and colin Powell Secretaries of State, and George spoke Spanish fluently. What he didn't quite get was poor white and poor black folk and foreigners were not his comfort zone.

Apologists for the Iraq war say "it was right to remove Saddam"!

A similar refrain was heard from the communists, following the Red Terror in Russia. "It was right to remove the Tsar"!

Those words hide a mountain of misery and ignore the fact that one bullet could have achieved that stated aim.

It requires a special kind of wickedness to destroy a country on the pretext of removing its despotic leader.