The 2008 Bush-Mubarak Love-In

A bit over halfway between the rigged Egyptian presidential election of 2005 and that of 2010, US President George W Bush met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in January 2008 in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el Sheikh.

Bush opened with:

“Mr. President, thank you, sir. It’s a pleasure to be back in Egypt. This is such a beautiful sight, Mr. President. Thank you for hosting my visit here. As you mentioned, I’ve been on a long trip and I can’t think of a better place to end it than right here with you in this beautiful setting.”

You can read the whole thing here.

Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t get any less gushy than Bush’s opener, and there’s not even the most oblique reference to rigged elections, dictatorship, suppression of democratic aspirations, or anything uncomfortable like that.

Nope, it’s all about “building on important steps” led by Mubarak’s “leadership,” which inexorably lurched into the next rigged presidential election of 2010.

Tragically, Mr Bush couldn’t stand for yet a third term to set that all to rights.

But hey, maybe it wasn’t at all Bush’s murderous, deceitful war in Iraq that set Egypt aflame this last week, but rather Obama’s wide-ranging, visionary 2009 speech in Cairo.

If it all goes pear shaped, then at least you can blame it all on Obama.