Have Intercourse With Our Friends and Beat the Crap Out of Our Neighbors

At least, that's how this George W quote from a speech in Britain is bound to get picked up:

"It really is about time we started to realize who are allies are, who our enemies are, stick with the one and fight the other."

It must have sounded good in his head at the time.

Aside from when he really gets his mind set on something, Bush tends to be much more a grayscale thinker than he expresses himself to be. This has been part of his PR problem since... well, since forever. I imagine him seeing this kind of statement as grand and heroic rhetoric, a head coach in the locker room at halftime about to stage the biggest come-from-behind victory the world has ever seen. After the show, he gives Condoleeza Rice a high five and like college buddies they point out the kick-ass-ed-ness of the sound bite.

I sincerely doubt Bush literally meant we're going to send the armed forces of all allied nations to massacre all non-allied nations. But you can't use global struggle as a metaphor when global struggle is what you're addressing.

On a related note, it's times like these that we should read British papers like The Guardian. It allows us to see how the people being addressed are viewing how they're being addressed. Reading them to get the most honest outlook (which I know many who do) is just as immature as trusting mainstream US media as the end-all be-all. More on that later (if I can get myself riled up about it).