How touching that Bush has to go literally to the ends of the earth ("outer Mongolia"), to the home of Genghis Khan to find support for the Iraq War. My sense of irony was aroused in reading
this article at Yahoo.
Mongolia and the United States are standing together as brothers in the cause of freedom," Bush told Mongolian troops and lawmakers in a speech at the Government House.
MORE SNARK BELOW THE JUMP
For the purposes of the photo-op, Bush somehow managed to get into this horse-related comedy, and made a "Church Lady" comment, to top it off:
After the 13-minute speech, Bush ventured just outside the capital to sip fermented mare's milk and listen to the traditional Central Asian art of throat singing.
"Really special," he commented.
Ha. Wonder if Laura had any funny comments about horse milk.
I am not quite sure how much news gets through to Ulan Bator, or why Mongolia became part of the Coalition of the Killing. Willing. I don't imagine the subleties of the Downing Street Memo vs Minutes, or Condi's fabrications about aluminum tubes have really sunk in there. Perhaps it's a warrior society. But I somehow think there might be financial incentives for top Mongols...am I wrong? I don't think so....at the end of the piece we discover:
Bush noted that Mongolia is one of 16 countries that will share $1 billion in U.S. aid as part of an incentive program for poor countries that show a commitment to carrying Bush's water in Iraq economic and government reform. The president also brought a gift -- $11 million cash for the annual bribe to the generals in aid to improve Mongolia's military forces through a separate program for nations allied with the U.S.-led war on terror.
and also this telling remark:
Enkhbayar was elected in May on a platform of fighting corruption.
At any rate, I am glad that, to this point, neither the press nor the Iraqis, who are already sensitive to the "Crusaders" aspect of the Iraq invasion, have picked on the "Mongol horde" meme. Of course, it's hard to term any group of just 160 guys as a "horde," no matter how racist you might be.
In using the term "special," Bush may have been referring to the statue of Genghis Khan, rather than the yuchh horse stuff:
a towering, white statue of Genghis Khan, the legendary horseman-warrior and country founder whose empire once stretched as far south as Southeast Asia and west to Hungary.
I'm sure Dubya was thinking how special it would be to have Halliburton
looting reconstructing THAT empire. Or perhaps he was thinking that Genghis Khan would have quickly impaled Jack Murtha...I just can't read Bush's mind.
Bush spoke with the pride of one who has never served in combat:
Mongolia's force of about 160 in Iraq makes it, with its population of just 2.8 million, the third-largest contributor per capita to the coalition.
'U.S. armed forces are proud to serve beside such easily manipulated fearless warriors," Bush said.
Somehow I'm pretty sure these Mongol Warriors are not so proud of even being photographed "side by side" with this
chickenhawk preznint. One of the brave warriors was heard to say (and this is only a rough translation) "how is this guy gonna get us out of Iraq, he can't find his way out of a press conference?"