The Sacrificer: Bush Quit Golf Over Iraq War
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush said in an interview out Tuesday that he quit playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the families of US soldiers killed in the conflict in Iraq, now in its sixth year.
“I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal,” he said in an interview for Yahoo! News and Politico magazine.
“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them.”
The US president traced his decision to the August 19, 2003 bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed the world body’s top official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
“I remember when de Mello, who was at the UN, got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man’s life. And I was playing golf — I think I was in central Texas — and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, it’s just not worth it anymore to do,” said Bush.
Bush’s last round of golf as president dates back to October 13, 2003, according to meticulous records kept by CBS news.
On the day of the bombing two months earlier, he had cut short his golf game at the 12th hole and returned to his ranch in tiny Crawford, Texas.
© 2008 Agence France Presse
I have to say, I thought April Fool’s day was a few weeks ago
oh wait
every day is april fool’s day when Bush is president.
What a f*&king joke. If this asshole had stayed on the golf
course, instead of the in White House, we would all be better off today. If that’s the biggest sacrifice he’s made, it would be laughable if it wasn’t so sick. He has to be one
sick puppy!
How about he quits breathing instead.
We can always pray for an accident with his chainsaw while the “Decider” is cutting brush on his Crawford Texas “ranch”. Chopping off an arm and leg would be fitting, so many young men and women are returning from Iraq missing theirs.
I can think of a logical reason why Bush ‘gave up’ golf.
Golf greens are nice, wide open spaces with great sight lines, and lots of trees and ground cover on the sides.
Perfect for snipers.
Think about it.
Here’s a related article by Mr. Burns of The Simpsons:
http://www.peacecoup.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1502794%3ABlogPost%3A6041
Gee, what a major sacrifice!!! I think Bush should be given a medal for this much pain and stress!
Galen;
I do believe that you’ve hit on the real reason for the busher to give up a game he wasn’t very good at. Hopefully for georgie there’ll be some nice golfing opportunities in hell.
I can think of a reason why Bush’s handlers have suggested he give up something to show his concern.
The reason being how bad it looked that the commander in chief was tap dancing while men were dying in Iraq a few weeks ago.
Bush is serious …five years of tap dancing later… he’ll be giving up golf. How heroic. How about giving up some of those tax cuts and taking care of the wounded veterans better instead?
Once again, this pernicious usurper and chief isn’t telling the ‘Merican people I mean sheeple the facts. He was golfing in and around the time of Hurricane Katrina, and we all know what happened then. This man is a disgrace to the country and to our world.
Bush simply doesn’t give a rat’s arse, neither does Mike Allen who interviewed him. Allen is nothing more than corporate toady. He and his ilk are the purveyors of the mendacity we’ve all been spoon fed and which has kept this false reality (Bush world) in tact and has corrupted and impoverished our once great country.
The morass is far too deep, we’ve already crossed the Rubicon.
bush might have given up golf but he’s spending millions of U.S. taxpayer’s money to build a golf course in the green zone.
I suppose that he considers that a form of payment for ruining Iraq, killing tens of thousands of it’s citizens, stealing it’s resources, and terrorising a couple of billion people on the planet.
Besides he probably lied about his golf score anyway.
Galen and skippyagogo41; Speaking of snipers, I wonder if junior also ‘gave up’ hunting with dickey-boy?
Maybe he’ll give up the game of playing president since he’s such a loser at it.
When he’s done “playing” President, he will be paid millions of dollars by the Carlyle Group to play golf with weapons dealers and oil executives.
At best this is a faux-show of concern… if he was truly concerned for the well-being of humanity and more specifically the Iraqi’s and our soldiers… he would order our troops home or too Afghanistan. (seeing that Afghanistan was the one who actually attacked America, not Iraq, it would only seem logical to reengage the actual enemy.)
-James
www.thepoliticus.org
“and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, it’s just not worth it anymore to do”
They had to ‘pull’ this prick off the golf course and tell him why its wrong ! Clearly it wasn’t his own decision, which is consistent with the fact that he lacks a conscience.
The Decider is all full of sacrifices, baby. Remember just before launching his illegal invasion of Iraq?
USA Today: “…he gave up sweets just before the war began.”
Side note - because sometimes we forget just how damn crazy President Decider and Sacrificer is:
“Bush believes he was called by God to lead the nation at this time, says Commerce Secretary Don Evans…” That would be the God of lies, death and profiteering, the very same one blessing America, yes?
No sweets, no golf - now that’s how we show the soldiers the love, ain’t it?
Maybe they got tired of watching his sorry a** constantly slice or hook his shots into the trees and water. Maybe his entourage got tired of running for cover because this a**hole has a terrible swing. Either way, this guy is a f***ing twit.
You are right on riddimboy . . .
His handlers had to take his hand and explain what was happening. I am sure he did not have any idea. As for snipers . . . Well why waste a good bullet on someone that wouldn’t even know why he was shot!
What CRAP! He gave up golf because-
1. With an ego like his, golf comes up the master.
2. There are strict rules in golf and he can’t live by the
Rules!
3. With his language and temperment, who would want to play with him.
4. Youre only allowed 14 clubs on a round, when he gets to the 15th or sixteenth hole, he has nothing to play with!!!
How much longer do we have to listen to this kind of crap
George Wanker Bush should play one more round of golf - just one. He drives off the first tee deep into a water hazard, goes to retrieve his ball and fucking drowns. Then I take all my friends out for unlimited drinks and celebrate the death of one of the greatest pieces of human trash who ever drew a breath.
This is a situation RED on the bullshit alert
“out of respect for the families of US soldiers killed in the conflict in Iraq,” ?
While dead US soldiers were being cremated at Pet Cremation Facility? Was that out of respect too? Jes…
I’d say what Dubya could do with his old golf balls, but I’d probally get a visit from Homeland Security…who the hell came up with that soviet sounding terminology anyway?!
while bush gave up golf….soldiers,marines,airmen,and sailors… GAVE UP THEIR LIVES….this is just more nonsense coming from bush….IN AN EFFORT TO DISTRACT US…we are smarted than that……
jposty,
Afgahnistan NEVER attacked the US. Understood?
He stopped playing with his balls and started deleting Whitehouse e-mails along with a million Iraqis…this isn’t a sacrifice, it’s a Burnt Offering!
Isn’t this fun? Bash bash bash. Like a big stupid president fish in a barrel!
If Bush is sincere about it, he should send his daughters to Iraq. Stop golfing - give me a break!!!!!!
ladybug,
Thanks for diverting this discussion about a silly president into teaching fellow bloggers some serious history lessons. So I was not the only one to notice this mistake by jposty.
Well, he still gets to ride his little bike, doesn’t he?
whoah what?
Afghanistan’s state sponsored (i’m using the term state extremely loosely) terrorists did in fact attack us.
I understand most were Saudi’s… but they were trained and funded by the Taliban and Al Queda.
-James
www.thepoliticus.org
Presumably another point of contention between him and his dad.
Remember his famous line: “Watch this drive!”?
With war raging all he could think about was his golf swing. (The same callousness/insensitivity he displayed during Katrina.)
No, this period in history will not go down as “Camelot” or “Morning in America.”
Bush played golf while America went off course, so it’s only fitting that the Bush Presidency be named SHANKRI-LA:
http://www.airfarceone.net/shankrila.html
=
Hey Jposty, get your facts straight. Afghanistan never attacked America, its the other way around. So who is the enemy? The Taliban, put into power by the US? Al Qaida, created by the CIA? Are we seeing a pattern yet? How come they still havent found ole Osama…. I thought they knew exactly where he was 7 years ago? THEY wouldn’t lie to us….. Would they? So many questions, so little time….
As a real sign of respect for the dead, dying, and maimed in the Iraq War all US Government employees should immediately sell all of their oil-related stocks. And while we’re were at it, DOD-related stocks or any fund that gives the unseemly appearance of war-profiteering.
Words fail me.
it’s relatively easy to lie about everything EXCEPT golf –
where one’s screwups are imminently plain and apparent –
so….the logical choice is to quit golf
Why do I keep seeing images of Mussolini’s dead, beaten body hanging upside down from a meat hook whenever I see a picture of Bush?
Hey, bush:
It’s the Persian Gulf–not the Persian Golf. Get it? “Gulf”, not “Golf”!
Oh, I forgot. You don’t read.
Who says this man lacks a social conscience?
Frank Lieb
“How much longer do we have to listen to this kind of crap”?
I’d guess approximately 8 months, 5 days, 23 hours, and 17 minutes.
Did he give up tennis, too? Sorry (am not) to go slightly off-topic here.
Has there ever been a president who cared less about the truth, never vetoing anything when he had a Republican majority in congress and then vetoing everything once he didn’t, more purely political therefore, and more doctrinaire, bellicose, knee-jerk by nature, more mindlessly pro-business, more mindlessly anti-government, more unable to realize the deep similarity between these two forms of organization, which are, after all, equally stupid, with the same ultimate potential for good.
If this is not indicative of the ne’er-do-well hubris that infects every sleazy pore of his being, then I don’t know what is. NOFX (the band) nailed when they wrote “Idiot Son of an Asshole.” Another apt comparison would to Marie Antoinette’s infamous, “Let Them Eat Cake.”
As a bicycling enthusiast, I think the best sacrifice/contribution this moron could make is to go on a bike ride on his ranch where his front wheel could hit the hole of some patriotic prairie dog, and he gets flipped over the handlebars and lands on the softest part of his body, i.e., his head (his big head, not his little head, although I’ve heard rumors that that is also always very soft). He could then become totally paralyzed and learn the real meaning of sacrificing himself for the good of mankind.
Perhaps gwb gave up reading (I understand the inherent fallacy in what is my assumption) on 11 September 2001: Can’t read about pet goats–PDBs already unworthy of his attention by August 2001–while the rest of the country is living in fear–real or manufactured.
.
More BUSH MANURE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IMPEACH both BUSH and CHENEY…………..IMMEDIATELY
BRING OUR TROOPS HOME……….ASAP
.
jposty;
The afghan gov’t of the Taliban couldn’t and didn’t provide the funds for Al-Queda to exist; that money came from Saudi Arabia. That theocratic bunch of tossers were far more concerned with fighting the other group of terrorists in Afghanstan; the Northern Alliance.
The Taliban did nothing to stop Bin Ladin, then again the Canadian Gov’t did nothing to stop a group of Sikh Terrorists blowing up an Air India flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Should India have declared war on Canada and invaded North America in an attempt to prosecute those who were responsible for that act of terrorism? If India should not have done that, why do you think it was peachy keen for the USA to do to Afghanistan what another country didn’t do to Canada? Might makes right?
Unfortunately, he redirected his botchy golf techiques: hooking many with lies, slicing checks and balances, and driving the country into an oily sand trap.
Would that he’d given up
“HIS WAR” and taken more golf lessons.
Do his spin folks really think they’re
going to soften the image of this bloody
liar?
buckheaddad
He’ll probably pick up the clubs again after he has escaped, I mean RETIRED to Paraquay, South America.
This is just about the silliest thing I’ve ever seen. How in the heck would Bush’s giving up golf help the troops? That’s kind of like saying you’re going to give up Lima beans for Lent.
How about really doing something for the troops, like taking care of them when they get back to the US, all messed up with post-traumatic stress disorder or missing an arm or leg? Or, better yet, why not end the war and bring them home?
C’mon, George! Play all the golf you want, I don’t care. Just end this stupid war.
suppose it has anything to do with Mike Moore’s film “Fahrenheit 9/11″?
the scene where W minimizes the question just asked him but is in all his glory driving a ball down the fairway.
Probably why W jets off to other continents…to play golf out of the spotlight.
A previous poster said, “seeing that Afghanistan was the one who actually attacked America”. Not so, Afghanistan provided some sanctuary for Osama but he was a national hero who helped defeat those other invaders, the Soviets. He addition the government of Afghanistan offered to turn Osama over, twice, to a country that would give him a fair trial. America rejected that option and proceeded to bomb Afghanistan. The Bush Jr. killing response has reduced American security but then lots of people have figured that out.
Or, maybe Bush caught wind that people (Michael Mooore, etc) had footage of him playing golf and acting like a total DORK, and had plans to show it to the entire world…
It’s no sacrifice…With all the blood on his hands he just can’t hold the clubs.
The a**hole gives up golf (temporarily) while others give up their lives for his war profiteering. Isn’t that sweet of the little fellow.
The last “news” broadcast I saw from Afghanistan was two weeks ago. An NBC reporter was standing up to his waist in poppies that looked about ready for harvest. If opium funds the Taliban and the terrorists, why haven’t these poppy fields been destroyed? Could it be that the war in Afghanistan is about establishing a drug cartel and not about terrorists at all? Think how rich an enterprising company could be if it controlled both oil and opium.
Back to golf…Bush wasn’t very good at it.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10316.html
I thought Bush gave up reading and keeping up with current events. Oh, wait. That was BEFORE he became president.
begin Sarcasm
You know, I would not hold it against the sacrificer if he would go play a few rounds of golf in Iraq, perhaps televised so the troops could enjoy it vicariously. I would even be impressed that he would go to the front lines for the sake of troop moral. It might even be considered sporting if he could get a few games in. Bet there will be a bookie somewhere to take wagers on how many holes he completes.
end Sarcasim
Well, it is after all of great comfort to know that in these perilous times we have a president who is neither hooking nor slicing his shots.
Good. Golf is a game of honesty and integrity, which is not this President’s character.
Does this psychotic ditz speak English?
The Secret Service (where, apparently, no patriots are to be found)has forbidden the dummy to go outside without his tether. Golfcourses are way too big for the lengths of tether available at this time. The short tether being used now keeps Mommy’s favorite boy from getting all the way across the room to the briefcase with the Big Red Button inside.
Keith Olbermann nailed him. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him so ticked off.
http://thenewshole.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/14/1020413.aspx
I can’t even believe what a piece of garbage we have running this country.
COMMON DREAMS editors only waste our time and energy by posting, and then soliciting feedback from, articles like this.
The energy thus squandered (all too often via similar articles, as well) could be much more usefully spent in feedback to [more] articles that propose positive solutions to the disasters caused by Bush.
Given the direness of the general situation, we shouldn’t be wasting time by gloating on the obvious horrors and idiocies of the proven meta-fool we call The President. It’s an emotional-release luxury we can ill-afford.
The dim child of wealth and generational privilege sullies the game of golf.
Son of a Bitch, and a war criminal.
RE: Mordechai Shiblikov May 14th, 2008 1:32 pm
“George Wanker Bush should play one more round of golf - just one. He drives off the first tee deep into a water hazard, goes to retrieve his ball and fucking drowns”
I love it, Mordechai, but only if this is one of the rare times we will be given permission to pee in the pool
RE: Chicanery May 14th, 2008 9:21 pm
“Keith Olbermann nailed him. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him so ticked off.”
Thanks for that Chicanery, saw him on MSNBC earlier…Keith Rocks!!! I copied the text & intend to send it to almost everyone on my 1,000+ e-mail list. It was so good I think I’ll post the link again:
http://thenewshole.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/14/1020413.aspx
On another note, you guys should give poor retarded (my apologies to the mentally challenged) DUH-bya a break (preferably his stupid neck). Didn’t we have another Republican president (Eisenhower) who liked to golf, and caught grief about it in the press? Oh, that’s right! He was a REAL soldier, who had actually been to war, instead of a chickensh*t chickenhawk playboy flyboy strutting arrogantly on a carrier deck showing off a codpiece.
Too bad George ‘Wanker’ Bush’s brains aren’t as functional as his delusions of grandeur. In that case he’d give Einstein a run for the money.
What an ass of a president, what an asshole of a man.
I’d quit too if I ever lost my balls.
Hillary will probably pardon Bush for . . . the list of crimes is far too long for this wee space.
So Bush sacrifices his golf game. Big deal.
If he decided to sacrifice his so-called presidency, we’d be getting somewhere.
I wouldn’t have advised him to give up the Green, maybe the White tho
Having told us he is the decider, he now tells us he is the sacrificer. I am spliting my gut with laughter. If he were truly the sacrificer, he would have sent his daughters to Iraq - the front lines!
I called over to the PGA Tour office and asked if they were going to take Bush’s lead and canceled any of the tournaments out of respect for the American dead from the war in Iraq and they keep hanging up on me!?
Another lie from Bush. He said he stopped playing in September, and as Keith Olberman showed, there he was in October playing golf again.
This man is so morally corrupt he’s beyond help.
This might represent the attitude of the wealthy owners of Nrth America toward ther rest of us.
Oh come ON people! Bush giving up golf is akin to the sacrifices Americans made during WWII. Don’t you see how much this sacrifice has affected him personally? He can no longer hit little white balls down a little green strip of grass populated by mostly white people because on his orders little brown people are being murdered by high school failures wearing cute little uniforms…..
….or….
Even if he’s only 50% worse at golf than he is at playing president it would be years before he actually got the little white ball into the cup
Thanks for the news bulletin about Georgies’ insensitivity.
I also read Keith Olbermann’s comments that this news flash brought forth. All I have to say is: “Thank you Keith; I want to bear your children.”
I guess the giving up of his humanity was not worth mentioning.
This is Bush’s way of saying “Let them eat cake!”
Well, to the entire criminal administration, I say, let them eat s***.
What a load of crap. What a moron. What an absolute, unforgiveable idiot. This just confirms what just about everyone knows about Bush, that he completely lacks anything that even remotely resembles conscience. May history ravage him as the worst president ever.
Please, please come quick, January. Let’s end this long national nightmare before it’s too late. If, that is, there is anything left to salvage after the Bushies have had their way with things. God knows, it sure seems like most people are just wallowing in apathy and refuse to rise up and depose the tyrants that run our country. Too bad. It’s just downright unpatriotic to do nothing. Our Founding Fathers would be deeply ashamed of us if they were alive right now. Chances are, they’d be marching in the streets calling for heads to roll.
We should do no less if we at all honor our Founders. This Memorial Day, we ought to have one big massive uprising to demand our country back in the names of our Founders and all who died to preserve the country who we honor that day.
It’s not a bad idea for everybody to give up sports in respect for those who have lost their lives, and their families, and especially for middle class and poor folk to not pay to attend ‘games’.
Of course, it would be to everyone’s advantage to give up some luxueries and buy only that which is really necessary until there is a change in government reflecting its intention to preserve our democracy, and hold the criminals accountable.
Why is it all the good Presidents get shot?
This idiot for a President didn’t stop playing golf as he’s been seen in Arizona driving the balls. He has no sense of shame as someone had to call him off the course. He never gave up golf or anything else but he probably doesn’t want anyone to think he’s out in the open somewhere. He’s a first class joke but unfortunately to the rest of the world, we Americans look like a dunce for even letting his kind get into office and stay there.