WTF Is It Now?!?

"this increasingly incompetent strategist"

Robert Fisk at The London Independent:

George Bush Junior gave up last week. After all the blustering and grovelling and the disobeyed instructions to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and all the hectoring of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and all the "visions" of a Palestinian state, the President threw in his hand. There will be no Middle East peace conference in the near future, no serious attempt to halt the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, not a whimper of resolution on the region's tragedy from the man who started the "war for civilisation", the "war on terror", the "endless war" and, most recently, the "titanic war on terror". Mr Bush, his ever more incomprehensible spokesman Ari Fleischer vouchsafed to us last week, "has come to some conclusions". And - this really took the biscuit - "when the President determines the time is right, he will share it".


'Who the hell are you to tell me what I can and can't draw?'

Andrew Buncombe at The London Independent:

They are largely black and white (and read all over) but George Bush wants to colour them red, white and blue.

Nine months after the attacks of 11 September, leading American political cartoonists say they are under intense pressure to conform to a patriotic stereotype and not criticise the actions of Mr Bush and his "war on terror". Those who refuse to bend to such pressure face having their work rejected, being fired or even publicly humiliated by the President's press secretary.

Last month the veteran TV anchor Dan Rather sparked controversy when he said the patriotism engulfing the country had stopped the media asking difficult questions of America's leaders, and admitted he personally was guilty of such self-censorship. Now cartoonists, often the most biting political commentators of all, say they are feeling the same pressures.

[I]n the aftermath of 11 September, free thinking is under threat. Many cartoonists say that for the first few days after the attacks, their natural reaction was to produce work that expressed little more than shock, outrage and anger. But it soon became apparent that the emerging patriotism was developing a political agenda, with anyone who merely questioned the government or its agenda being deemed unpatriotic.