Julian Assange: Bush’s Real Biographer

Reading the diplomatic memoranda and cables divulged by WikiLeaks, it’s too bad that the site’s founder, Julian Assange, did not write George W. Bush’s memoirs himself. It would be closer to reality — and also to the truth. Reading these diplomatic communications gives us the true version of the facts. The “Decision Points” sales tour should have been a two-voiced exercise, a duet between Bush and Assange, the one telling what happened, the other telling a story that made the world more dangerous and that “gave Iraq to Iran as a gift on a golden platter,” according to the lovely phrase by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah. W.’s version: The world has become safer without Saddam Hussein.

Since the fall of the Shah, U.S. policy has long been to support Iraq in order to control Iran. Now we are discovering that not only is Iraq, now dominated by the Shiites, a province of Shiite Iran, but that North Korea has delivered to Ahmadinejad’s country missiles capable of reaching Cairo or Jerusalem. W. was right: The world is clearly more peaceful now that Saddam is gone.

The documents also reveal the effectiveness of Barack Obama’s policy, which has succeeded in cutting off Iran’s supply sources of nuclear fuel.

In his (quote unquote) “memoirs,” Bush affirms that even without weapons of mass destruction, Saddam was “a threat.” As Richard Cohen said in the Washington Post, “heads he wins, tails you lose.” Bush, freed from the burden of power, and with a lot of free time, should devote himself to a beneficial exercise: Reading the revealed WikiLeaks documents and, in light of this information, writing a second version of his memoirs. An interesting and original exercise. “On the book’s dust jacket,” writes Cohen, “Bush is shown in a ranching outfit. A Peter Pan outfit would have been more fitting. Like him, Bush has never grown up.” He’s still missing Pinocchio’s nose and a dunce cap.