Sunday, March 2, 2008

The Philharmonic Should Conduct Our Foreign Policy

This is a human-to-human experience,” said Katherine Greene, a Philharmonic violist. “All of a sudden you have a basis for how we are the same,” Ms. Greene said. “This is always how it starts.”


The New York Philharmonic concert in North Korea last week did more for peaceful coexistence in one night, than the Bush administration has done for seven years.

But lest we get swept away with the thing Republicans hate most, hope, Condoleeza Rice, classical pianist and failed Secretary of State, set us straight by saying, "I don't think we should get carried away with what listening to Dvorak is going to do in North Korea." Condi wished the Philharmonic had played Axis of Evil Interlude in C Minor, followed by the Bomb North Korea Suite.

The Surge sounds like the name of a male enhancement product, but John McCain says it's working in Iraq. It's working so well that George W. Bush flies to Baghdad, unannounced, under the cover of darkness, and flees five hours later, while Mahmoud Ahmadinijan travels the streets in broad daylight and actually stays overnight.

If Bush had flown to Iraq and talked to Saddaam Hussein instead of invading and destroying his country, we wouldn't be at war, and we'd have 600 billion dollars more to spend in this country. Now that would be a surge everyone could be happy about. But if you're happy for more than four hours, consult a physician.

Bush doesn't believe in talking to other countries, he just likes to threaten them. And the Bully-In-Chief made fun of Obama's willingness to talk to Iran, Cuba, North Korea and everyone else. Talking is for sissies, Bush probably tells his wife. A real man doesn't talk, doesn't listen, he just acts-recklessly and stupidly.

Bush ignored the Middle East for seven years, and the results of that indifference are playing out in Gaza and Israel. There are more armed conflicts in more places around the world than I can ever remember. None of them can be solved militarily. Only talking can accomplish that. But the Bush administration is a dysfunctional family-they don't believe in talking.

Bring home the troops. And send in the musicians.