This is a few days old, but it's bugging me.  

    More than two years after the scandal, with the damage to our national reputation compounded by new killings at Haditha, and now standing on a world stage, knowing full well that the entire Arab media is watching. . . Chimpus Maximus still can't bother to even try to pronounce the word for the torture place?  (See the 51:07 mark of his stand-up with Tony Blair. Transcript here.)

    Now, granted, I only speak like eleven words of Arabic, and maybe I'm wrong or missing Bush's subtle mastery of the Iraqi dialect or something.  I ain't no dang linguist.  Not pretending to be.  And granted, the phrase

may not immediately come tripping off your lips, particularly when you're trying to look tough by pushing your Texas accent forward.

     But here: just say the word "Paris," but with a broad, goofy, mock French accent, using a gutteral, back-of-the-throat "r" that almost makes a "g" in the process, a noise so French that Ann Coulter would just pee if she heard it.  Bingo.  That's decently close to the sound at the beginning of "Ghraib."   Not perfect, but easy.  Takes like two minutes to learn.  Close enough for horseshoes and global war on terror.  Particularly when you know the whole world is listening, and your international reputation depends on showing that you actually give the slightest damn about the Arabic world, despite Gitmo and the torture and the killings and the cover-ups, and your war isn't just about politics and power.

    But Bush just can't be bothered, I guess.  So, "Abu Guh-REB" it is.

    So imagine a Saudi dictator expressing his deep, abiding compassion for Katrina victims in the city of New Vuhr-LANE.  His own people might not catch it, but you'd sniff right away that he wasn't really sincere.

    Now imagine that the guy's army had actually tortured innocent people there.  Would you be impressed with how much he cares?

    You get the same impression by reading the full transcript, too.  Bush's "bring it on," for example, was "misinterpreted."  The press fussed like this was some sort of apology, but come on — that's the kind of crap you say when you're not sorry you left your underwear in the sink, but you'd like the roommate to stop throwing things. 

    Too bad our roommates are doing more than just throwing things. 

    It's this sort of sincerity that has made the war such a magnificent success.