The Queen and Bush: Lessons

Last Sunday, I finally got around to seeing the film, The Queen, starring Helen Mirren. Mostly, I went to see Mirren's performance, given the pre-oscar buzz. Besides that, I had lived in London at the time of Diana's death; during the period when Tony Blair and the Labour party swept into parliament following the inept bumbling of John Major.

Her death was shocking, certainly - her modern, fashionable class, confessionary TV specials, and predisposition with good causes and interesting men, made her far more the stuff of iconic legend than Paris Hilton should ever apire to. During those days, as the movie got right, you couldn't avoid the outrage at the 'Royals' - the 'why don't they get it', the 'how frigid can they be' the 'why are they still there' type headlines.

But, the Queen of England, at the time and as dramatized in this movie, did something that Bush, in all his boy-in-a-bubble arrogant stupidity can't do.....She considered public opinion (25% of which was against her for her initial handling of the Diana situation, compared to the 90% against Bush for his handling of Iraq.) She considered her decision not to make a public statement regarding Diana. She may or may not have listened to Tony Blair's insistence to say something as the film surmises, but nonetheless - she put her pride (and decades of her brand of leadership, sullen and dignified vs. emotional and tabloidal) aside and did a public about face......

She didn't wait ALMOST FOUR YEARS to take the pulse of reality and the public - she chewed on it for a COUPLE OF DAYS.

Now, I'm not comparing the magnitude of Diana's death with that of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Iraqi civilians plus thousands of American soldiers. But, that difference is precisely the point. Bush is going away to 'have a think' about a new Iraq strategy? What? What part of the bloody civil-war-sparking incompetent mess going on in Iraq requires more time to figure out? If he had the balls of the Queen of England, he'd be able to process the years of being so very wrong without having to return to his ranch over Christmas AND New Year's while thousands more people DIE to change his strategy.

Comments

[The Ripper]

Great post, thanks. Don't know if you've seen this David Letterman clip with Our Fearless Leader in it, but its pretty funny--
www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com