So "W" broke a "rule" in
Slovakia. He didn't take his gloves off to shake hands. From my perspective Bush has been slinging BS for so long now, the Slovaks should be thankful. :-)
On a more serious note... Many would dismiss this slip as just a mistake. I'm not so quick to do so. After all, our taxes pay for people to help the president deal with other cultures. They should have done this right.
I'm thinking that perhaps this is a Freudian slip either on the part of Bush or his administration. I know it's a stretch to think that an organization can make a Freudian slip, so work with me here.
Assuming this is a slip of either Bush or his administration, how do we and the Slovaks interpret it?
One obvious possibility, is that he just doesn't care enough to learn the customs of the countries he visits. Stop there, nothing more complicated than disrespect.
I'm not willing to stop there. Another possibility is that Bush is not ready to "take the gloves off" over the weakening of democracy in Russia. When will he be ready to take the gloves off? It depends on Putin's behavior over the near term.
Keep going...
A third possibility is that he just doesn't care. This is like the first one above, except we need to explore why he might not care. Could it be that he plans to ignore other countries when dealing with Iran? Yes he is working now to get Europe to send a consistent
unified message to Iran. Bush is even trying to make it look like a European led mission. But the Hawks in his administration (Cheney and Rumsfeld) seem to be against striking a deal with Iran. And as we've seen in the past, Bush listens to (is controlled by?) his Hawks.
My preferred interpretation? I see this faux paux as indicative of Bush's foreign policy. Don't take other countries seriously (or view them as a threat). Treat them nicely as long as they agree with us. Twist arms to get them to agree. Hmm. Sounds just like a 6th grade bully.
Mark