Just Read the Book

George Bush Jnr, or good ol 'W', once bet his political strategist, Karl Rove he could read more books in a year.

This detail emerged from Bush's autobio published last week. I think Rove won the bet but W still consumed almost 100 himself. That would not really matter if he hadn't been President at the time and not a first year undergraduate.

Surprisingly some were rather intellectual, which reminded me of that line from the film 'A Fish Called Wanda,'

"Monkeys don't read philosophy."

"Yes they do. They just don't understand what it means."

As expected, in Bush's memoirs we have the justification of Iraq war as well as torture through water-boarding. He rather glibly said it was perfectly alright as he had checked with lawyers and delivered the line as if we all knew the high levels of virtue advocates work under. These lawyers would also have had some encouragement from Veep Cheney to provide 'suitable' advice.

On the rounds of interviews for his book, one brave journo dared press him on the issue by asking the simple question (in so many words), "Ok, Bud, if this is not torture, are we OK about foreign police or army doing this to American personnel?" Bush shifted in his seat and gave his universal answer: "Just read the book."

But since then, some poor commentators have ploughed through this simplistic, Texan drivel they have found lots of false and proxy memories. I guess the editors did not dare to cross check if Bush was always there to witness all the conversations he had detailed. But it seems he has probably inadvertantly lifted sections frm other books (like Bob Woodward's). So he comes across as a rather dim, confused, self-conscious, adolescent who just used to be President.