Our very own ‘King’ George II is heading to the U.K. this week for an official state visit with the Queen which will be protested heavily by citizens of the U.K. who are unconvinced that going to Iraq was justified. They blame Bush, and their own spineless PM Tony Blair, for dragging their country into a bloody mess with no plan for Iraq after the shock-and-awe-show our militaries put on.
Thankfully, Britain has an independent media who don’t follow an administration approved script, and as a result, the citizens of the U.K. are a well informed and politically aware bunch of blokes.
The thing about this visit is our ‘fearless’ leaders total unwillingness, bordering on cowardness, to shun the media, the parliament, and the citizens of Britain because he can’t handle unscripted events that his handlers can’t control. There are plans for over 25,000 people to march the streets in protest while Bush is in town. The White House wants Scotland Yard, who is handling security, to shut down the streets of downtown London under the guise of ’security’ for the President, but with the real intention of keeping the protesters off the street and out of sight from the TV cameras.
Bush also canceled a planned speech to Parliament. The situation couldn’t be controlled by his handlers and they feared Bush might look as foolish as he did when he was heckled twice while addressing the Australian parliament last month. Instead, he’ll be addressing an ‘invited audience’ in Whitehall on Thursday, who without a doubt will be screened to make sure they’ll applaud when told, and nod furiously in agreement when Bush talks tough about terrorism and the justification for the war in Iraq.
The common theme here is that the leader of the free world is hiding from overwhelming world criticism of his policies behind the constant pretext of ’security’. Like an ostrich who sticks it’s head in the sand at the first sign of trouble, our president and his handlers think that if they can’t see or hear the hundreds of thousands of people who would be screaming at him if they could just get close enough to be seen and heard, they must not exist.
Sooner or later being able to shield the president from anyone who disagrees with him is going to come to an end. Here’s a toast to the Brit’s for doing their best to disrupt the ‘democracy by proxy’ which Bush seems to favor.
