<
I have just read Georgie Bush's new book and, on a scale of 1 to 10, I
give it a minus 4.
< -- Ed Conrad
<
PS: I was going to write an article like this, but
I see it has already been written.
<
George Bush's Book
'Decision Points' Lifted
From Advisers' Books
<
< By RYAN GRIM
< The Huffington Post
<
When Crown Publishing inked a deal with George W. Bush for his
memoirs, the publisher knew it wasn't getting Faulkner. But the book,
at least, promises "gripping, never-before-heard detail" about the
former president's key decisions, offering to bring readers "aboard
Air Force One on 9/11, in the hours after America's most devastating
attack since Pearl Harbor; at the head of the table in the Situation
Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq," and other
undisclosed and weighty locations.
<
Crown also got a mash-up of worn-out anecdotes from previously
published memoirs written by his subordinates, from which Bush lifts
quotes word for word, passing them off as his own recollections.
<
He took equal license in lifting from non-fiction books about his
presidency or newspaper or magazine articles from the time.
<
Far from shedding light on how the president approached the crucial
"decision points" of his presidency, the clip jobs illuminate
something shallower and less surprising about Bush's character: He's
too lazy to write his own memoir.
<
Bush, on his book tour, makes much of the fact that he largely wrote
the book himself, guffawing that critics who suspected he didn't know
how to read are now getting a comeuppance.
<
Not only does Bush know how to read, it turns out, he knows how to
Google, too. Or his assistant does. Bush notes in his acknowledgments
that "[m]uch of the research for this book was conducted by the
brilliant and tireless Peter Rough.
<
Peter spent the past 18 months digging through archives, searching the
internet[s], and sifting through reams of paper." Bush also
collaborated on the book with his former speechwriter, Christopher
Michel.
<,
Many of Bush's literary misdemeanors exemplify pedestrian sloth, but
others are higher crimes against the craft of memoir.
<
In one prime instance, Bush relates a poignant meeting between Afghan
President Hamid Karzai and a Tajik warlord on Karzai's Inauguration
Day. It's the kind of scene that offers a glimpse of a hopeful future
for the beleaguered nation.
<
Witnessing such an exchange could color a president's outlook, could
explain perhaps Bush's more optimistic outlook and give insight into
his future decisions. Except Bush didn't witness it. Because he wasn't
at Karzai's inauguration.
<
His absence doesn't stop Bush from relating this anecdote: "When
Karzai arrived in Kabul for his inauguration on December 22 -- 102
days after 9/11 -- several Northern Alliance leaders and their
bodyguards greeted him at an airport. As Karzai walked across the
tarmac alone, a stunned Tajik warlord asked where all his men were.
Karzai, responded, 'Why, General, you are my men. All of you who are
Afghans are my men.'"
<
That meeting would sound familiar to Ahmed Rashid, author of "The Mess
in Afghanistan", who wrote in the New York Review of Books: "At the
airport to receive [Karzai] was the warlord General Mohammad Fahim, a
Tajik from the Panjshir Valley . . . As the two men shook hands on the
tarmac, Fahim looked confused. 'Where are your men?' he asked. Karzai
turned to him in his disarmingly gentle manner of speaking. 'Why
General," he replied, "you are my men -- all of you are Afghans and
are my men.'"
Bush's lifting of the anecdote, while disappointing on a literary
level, does raise the intriguing possibility that Bush actually read
Rashid's article. Doubtful. It was excerpted in the Googleable free
intro to his NYRB story. (Still, thinking of Bush browsing the NYRB's
website almost makes it worthwhile.)
<
In a separate case of scene fabrication, though, Bush writes of a
comment made by his rival John McCain as if it was said to him
directly. "The surge gave [McCain] a chance to create distance between
us, but he didn't take it. He had been a longtime advocate of more
troops in Iraq, and he supported the new strategy wholeheartedly. "I
cannot guarantee success," he said, "But I can guarantee failure if we
don't adopt this new strategy." A dramatic and untold coming-together
of longtime rivals? Well, not so much. It comes straight from a
Washington Post story. McCain was talking to reporters, not to Bush.
<
In most instances of Bush's literary swiping, he was at least present
for the scene. But the point of a memoir is that it is the author's
version of events.
<,
Bush's book is a collection of other people's versions of events. But
that's not what Bush promises readers. "Decision Points is based
primarily on my recollections. With help from researchers, I have
confirmed my account with government documents, personal interviews,
news reports, and other sources, some of which remain classified," he
offers. Bush, in his memoir, confesses to authorizing waterboarding,
which is a war crime, so the lifting of a few passages might seem
like
a minor infraction.
<,
But Bush's laziness undermines the historical value of the memoir.
Bush "recollects" -- in a more literal sense of the term -- quotes by
pulling his and others verbatim from other books, calling into
question what he genuinely remembers from the time and casting doubt
on any conclusions he draws about what his mindset was at the time.
<
In a final irony, Bush appears to draw heavily from several of Bob
Woodward's books and also from Robert Draper's "Dead Certain". The
Bush White House called the books' accuracy into question when they
were initially published.
<
The similarities between the way Bush recollects his and other quotes
may be a case of remarkable random chance or evidence that he and his
deputies were in an almost supernatural sync. If so, he essentially
shares a brain with General Tommy Franks.
<Bush writes: "Tommy told the national security team that he was
working to apply the same concept of a light footprint to Iraq . . .
'If we have multiple, highly skilled Special Operations forces
identifying targets for precision-guided munitions, we will need fewer
conventional grounds forces,' he said. 'That's an important lesson
learned from Afghanistan.' I had a lot of concerns. . . . I asked the
team to keep working on the plan. 'We should remain optimistic that
diplomacy and international pressure will succeed in disarming the
regime,' I said at the end of the meeting. 'But we cannot allow
weapons of mass destruction to fall into the hands of terrorists. I
will not allow that to happen.'"
<
Franks, in his memoir American Soldier, writes: "'For example, if we
have multiple, highly skilled Special Operations forces identifying
targets for precision-guided munitions, we will need fewer
conventional ground forces. That's an important lesson learned from
Afghanistan.' President Bush's questions continued throughout the
briefing . . . Before the VTC ended, President Bush addressed us all.
'We should remain optimistic that diplomacy and international
pressure
will succeed in disarming the regime.' . . . The President paused.
'Protecting the security of the United States is my responsibility,'
he continued. 'But we cannot allow weapons of mass destruction to fall
into the hands of terrorists.' He shook his head. 'I will not allow
that to happen.'"
<
A Crown official rejected the suggestion that Bush had done anything
inappropriate, suggesting that the similarities speak to its inherent
accuracy. The editor of Bush's book wasn't immediately able to
comment.
<
But if you already bought Bush's book thinking you were getting only
his own thoughts, you haven't entirely wasted your money. Finding
lifted passages in Bush's book is like an Easter egg hunt.
<
Look for passages with a number of quotes back to back and then slap
the passage into Google Books or plagiarism detection software you
might have access to.
<
The slideshow below shows what HuffPost has found so far. If you find
any more, send the passage to r...@huffingtonpost.com and we'll verify
it and add it to the list.
<
========
<
To view the slideshow -- DON'T MISS IT! -- click on huffpost.com or
huffingtonpost.com
<
================
<
The following poor souls and organizations were conned into buying
Georgie's new book. Now they demand a FULL refund.
<
Queen Elizabeth
Georgie Bush's mommy and daddy
Lady Gaga
Sonia of Operation Repo
General Motors
Gen. Omar Bradley (Ret.)
General Electric
General Foods
The Grim Reaper
Father Guido Sarducci
Mother Teresa
Dr. Death (Jack Kevorkian)
Christie O'Donnell
Ann "Douche Bag" Coulter
Rabbi Yehuda Levin
Roger Ailes
Keith Olbermann
The Darwin great-great grandkids
Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao
Richard Dawkins
Wall Street Industrial Averages
Pastor Terry Jones
Smithsonian Institution
Penn State University
60 Minutes
Amerigo Vespucci
Harvard University
Johns Hopkins University
University of California-Berkeley
Al Einstein
Al Qaeda Al-Qaeda al-Qaida al-Qa'ida
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Stepin Fetchit
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Sheriff Dengle -- Reno 911 Police Dept.
American Association of Anatomists
American Anthropological Association
BillO Reilly
Gorgeous George
Glenn Beck
Sean "Ins" Hannity
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
American Medical Association
Zinkag 41 (Autonomus Unit Zinkag 41, brood assemblage Delta 64)
American Museum of Natural History
The Good Shepherd
American Civil Liberties Union ACLU
Liz Cheney
American Society for Investigative Pathology
American Society of Human Genetics
Wikipedia
Geological Society of America
L'Osservatore Romano
Paleontological Research Institute (PRI)
Billy "Never Call Me Willie" Graham
Federation of American Scientists
Science Nature Omni Penthouse magazines
Smithsonian Custodial Employees (Local 666)
Sarah Palin
New England Journal of Medicine
Paul PZ ...
read more »