Wondering what the people of the middle east think about George Bush and his recent visit?

An article in the Abu Dhabi newspaper, 7Days by columnist ALI KHALED:

Now that the dust has settled on George W Bush’s trip to the Middle East, it’s worth reassessing exactly what this visit has actually achieved. Not surprisingly, Bush’s empty, embarrassing, rhetoric amounted to little more than a desperate man’s attempt at saving what will surely be viewed as a disastrous legacy in the Middle East.
Having resided over the least accountable, and quite possibly least competent, US regime in living memory, it was hugely insulting to our intelligence having to listen to Bush’s insincere words about Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq.
For eight long years, this man has stood by and watched, with utter detachment, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories deteriorate to catastrophic levels.
And now, as he prepares to exit the White House with his reputation in tatters, he is suddenly concerned about the well-being and future of the oppressed people of the Middle East. And his grand plan? Both sides should talk to each other! “To the Palestinian people, the dignity and sovereignty that is your right is within reach,” he said in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Where was this heartwarming concern in 2002 when, as Robert Fisk relayed in A-The Great War For Civilisation-, Bush demanded, yes, that’s A-demanded-, of Israel to withdraw from Jenin, while in reality he sent Colin Powell to the Middle East on a A-peace mission- that lasted an astonishing eight days. This was a convenient distraction that essentially allowed Ariel Sharon all the time he needed to complete his “latest bloody adventure in the West Bank”. (”When I say, withdraw, I mean it,” Bush had said, for all you comedy fans out there).

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