The Importance of "Important"

As Roger Cohen points out in "Bush Does Europe Incognito" (NYTimes).... "An American president is in Europe and nobody cares. That's a moment."

And, the result of president Bush's "chip-on-the-shoulder" temperament..... "he has proved mean, vindictive, surly, controlling and impatient, as befits his guns-at-the-ready gait".... the arrogance of self-importance.

The Decider's farewell limp around Europe reflects the "damage a flawed temperament has done to trans-Atlantic ties. Europeans got tired of being scowled at."

Indeed. And it probably didn't help that the resistance of Germany and France to the invasion of Iraq resulted in then-Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld referring to them as "Old Europe."

Old and wise.

Cohen hopes for "some fresh thinking, but above all a fresh spirit, a fresh temperament."

He's obviously not referring to John McCain whose jaded rhetoric and hair-trigger temper promises more of the same.... after all when asked on the Today show yesterday if he knew when American troops could start to return home, McCain responded.... "No, but that's not too important. What's important is the casualties in Iraq." (Huffington)

That about sums up the Bush/McCain world view, bringing our troops home from a deadly occupation that is sucking the national treasury dry, gutting our military, and isolating us from the world community.... while not making us safer..... is "not too important."

Not too important?