one questioner. "What's your question? I can read," raged Bush. Was Bush disappointed
with King Hussein?
I want to see the Arab states join the rest of the world in condemning this outrage and
doing what they can to get Saddam Hussein out. Now. He was talking-- King Hussein--
about an Arab solution, but I am disappointed to find any comment by anyone that
apologizes or appears to condone what's taken place.
Bush elaborated a few seconds later that there was no possibility of an Arab solution:
Well. I was told by one leader that I respect enormously-- I believe this was back on
Friday-- that they needed 48 hours to find what was called an Arab solution. That
obviously has failed. And of course I'm disappointed that the matter hasn't been resolved
before now. This is a very serious matter. I'll take one more and then I've got to go to
work over here.
The last question was about possible steps to protect American citizens, a question that
the administration wanted to play down at the beginning, and play up later on. Bush
concluded:
I am not going to discuss what we're doing in terms of moving of forces, anything of that
nature. But I view it very seriously, not just that, but any threat to any other countries as
well, as I view very seriously our determination to reverse this aggression. And please
believe me, there are an awful lot of countries that are in total accord with what I've just
said. And I salute them. They are staunch friends and allies. And we will be working with
them all for collective action. This will not stand. This will not stand, this aggression
against Kuwait. I've got to go. I have to go to work. I've got to go to work. [fn 42]
This was the beginning of the war psychosis, and there is no doubt that the leading war
psychotic was Bush himself.
A number of aspects of this performance merit underlining. The confusion of Manfred
Woerner with Perez de Cuellar will be the first of a number of such gaffes committed by
Bush over the next few days. "Naked aggression" is once again Thatcher's term. Thatcher
is mentioned twice in a way that suggests that Bush had been on the phone with her again
after leaving Aspen. Indeed, the code word "staunch" towards the end, which for Bush
can only be associated with the British, implies that Bush's entire episode had been
coordinated with Thatcher in advance. In regard to Saddam Hussein, in addition to the
direct contact that was never attempted we have here the beginning of a cascade of verbal
abuse that would continue through the course of the buildup and the war. According to
many observers, the purpose of these gratuitous insults was to make a compromise
settlement through negotiations impossible by casting aspersions on Saddam Hussein's
honor. This might have reflected advice from Arabists of the type known to inhabit the
British Foreign Office. Bush's responses concerning King Hussein of Jordan were very
ominous for the Hashemite monarch, and left no doubt that Bush regarded any Arab-
sponsored peaceful solution as an unfriendly act. Indeed, Bush here declared the Arab