In an official visit to the US after the 9/11 attacks, the former Prime Minister of Spain Jose Maria Aznar, who became one of America’s staunchest allies of the “so-called” War on Terror, said to President Bush, “Keeping your Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s mouth shut is the best thing you could ever do for the US. His words make his job even more difficult.”

It’s been five years since Aznar made his remarks and it’s now become very clear that George Bush’s continuous lapsus linguae are more damaging and threatening to the US than the US defense secretary’s comments have ever been. Interestingly, Rumsfeld has also lately been keeping himself out of the limelight. To be quite frank, I strongly believe that the US president desperately needs somebody to tell him to just shut his mouth and keep quiet.

The recent announcement in London about terrorists planning to bomb airplanes flying from the UK to the US has driven President Bush to the utter limit of losing control of his mouth. It was interesting to see him deliver a speech a short time later affirming that America is still at war with “Islamic fascists.”

Okay, we do realize that the man is limited in his knowledge and intellect and lacks the necessary experience. He also has a tendency to sometimes blabber and is totally oblivious of the impact and consequences of his utterances. However, having said that, any tenth grade politician would naturally realize that it is inappropriate to ascribe the vicious actions of evil-minded people to their religions. Otherwise, it would have been imperative for us to describe Adolf Hitler as being a Christian Nazi on account of his Nazi ideology; likewise we would be required to refer to the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, as a Christian fascist. Similarly terrorist organizations across the length and breadth of Europe, including Northern Ireland’s IRA and Spain’s ETA would have to be described as Christian terrorists.

If the fundamental meaning of fascism incorporates a sense of contempt for human life, denial of an individual’s freedom and right in deciding ones fate, the adoption of cruel methods in oppressing and restraining people, then what President Bush and his band of merry men are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan; their support for the bloody attack on Lebanon where innocent women and children have been targeted; the torture within Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and Afghan prisons; and not to forget the horror stories of kidnappings, torture, illegal renditions and abuse, make Bush and company indisputably the biggest and worse fascists and terrorists in history.

The present Archbishop of York in the UK, the Right Honorable Dr. John Sentamu, who is the second most senior figure in the Church of England after the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, said on Friday Aug. 11 that President Bush’s remarks were unhelpful and counterproductive. He also stressed that he did not believe that Islam was to blame for terrorist attacks carried out by extremists. “I do not think the people who are doing this are doing so because of Islam,” he said.

Sentamu confirmed that most people who involve themselves in extremism and terrorism are doing so either because they are alienated or because they have been given a vision that is so imaginatively wicked that they feel inclined and convinced to build a better world than what actually exists.

Anyhow, it does seem rather difficult to stop President Bush from making offensive and false accusations. At the end of the day, out of all the Western leaders he is the least experienced, the least knowledgeable and the most lightheaded. More importantly, the racist and extremist ideas and beliefs that are stuffed in the minds of the president and his band of merry men are leading the world from one crisis to another. In fact, following the violent assault on Lebanon, people in the Arab world, the US and Europe just didn’t need any more of Bush’s irrational and irresponsible blabbering. Speeches such as that of Bush’s destroy meaningful dialogue and interaction.

— Muhammad Salahuddin is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah.