Mark Kleiman posts the following picture of Bush shaking hands with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad:
Kleiman captions this picture as “Leader of the Free World smiles at noted Jew-baiter Mahathir Mohammed.”
Most rational people, particularly those who have paid attention to Bush’s policies in the Middle East, would fail to see George Bush as an anti-semite or one who enables anti-semites. Most reasonable people would consider this to be a cheapshot, as Conrad of the Gweilo Diaries did. Rather than heap scorn on Mark, Conrad instead chose to show Mark visually why this was such a cheap and unfair accusation:
Leader of the Free World gazes soulfully at noted Jew-killer Yasser Arafat
Conrad has several others that are just as amusing, and just as instructive to Mark why his outburst was a cheap shot and a low blow. Granted, Conrad is blogging from Hong Kong (suspiciously near Asia), and not the lofty moral enclave that is the School of Public Policy and Social Research at UCLA, so he probably lacks the perspective to understand that while Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is a scumbag, he is also the leading voice of all of Asia’s developing countries.
At any rate, Kleiman later responds, channeling Greg Easterbrook:
This seems to have struck a nerve, judging from the angry emails. But none of my correspondents specified which word in the phrase “noted Jew-baiter Mahathir Mohammed” needed to be more carefully explained. The Prime Minister’s career has relied from its beginning on whipping up hatred of Jews (despite the fact that Malaysia has no Jews). Nor did anyone explain why it was wrong to blame George W. Bush for giving such a warm greeting to such a thoroughgoing scoundrel.
First, Matt Stinson (my blogging better half), has some excellent background on Mahathir Mohammed and his importance in the region, as well as some remarks on the ‘reckless unilateralism’ of French Prime Minister Chirac, who was instrumental in blocking the UN censure of Dr. Mahathir. Dr. Kleiman must have missed that, and I would recommend that you all read both of Matt’s posts to get the full scoop (his permalinks are down, so just go to his website and search for “Holy Guilt-by-Association, Batman!” and “Sins of Omission”).
Second, since it is clear that Mark intends to be willfully obtuse, I will lay it out here in plain English:
Sometimes when you are the President of the United States and the leader of the free world, you have to deal with scummy people.
In fact, Mark, that is precisely what Conrad tried to illustrate and you either ignored or pretended to not understand. His point was that President Bill Clinton also had to deal with thoroughgoing scoundrels at times. In fact, these pictures will probably shock you:
President Bill Clinton Enjoys a Laugh With Racist Son of the South
President Bill Clinton Passes Notes to Leader of the Impeachment Coup, Speaker Newt Gingrich
Understand now, Mark? Sometimes you just have to deal with people you don’t like when you are President. Now go apologize, because you are better than that childish cheap shot you took at Bush. At least you used to be, according to all the great work you have done regarding drug policy.