Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

8-18-90 Saturday. Of all times to take a vacation, President [George Herbert Walker] Bush chose now. As I write, American troops are massing in Saudi Arabia. Some 200,000 are now there and the number is growing daily. Iraq’s Saddam Hussein [1937-2006] has escalated the verbal battle by calling Bush a liar and threatening to send American troops home in coffins if the United States attacks Iraq. Meanwhile, Bush is in his coastal home at Kennebunkport, Maine, fishing and playing golf. Each evening, on the television news, there are reports from the Mideast juxtaposed with pictures of Bush lounging on a fishing boat or playing horseshoes. He has even been interviewed from his golf cart. What puzzles me is why his advisors permit this. Television viewers are going to remember these images if and when American troops get killed. They are going to think that Bush played while others sweated and died. “Perhaps he doesn’t take the matter seriously”, they will think. Don’t get me wrong: Everyone, including the president, deserves a vacation. I just think he could have picked a better time for it. Things are too precarious at the moment to be pitching horseshoes.