Several months ago, when the marketing of Iraq’s invasion was building, a friend here in Victoria asked me if Laura Bush were dead. It wasn’t a morbid question as such. This person had simply noticed that since the build-up to war, Laura Bush was never seen in newscasts, never visible in photos, never quoted anywhere. I don’t subscribe to cable, and as it’s impossible here to pull in a single tv channel without it, I hadn’t noticed Laura’s disappearance from the network news. I eventually forgot about my friend’s question because I’ve never spent much time thinking about Laura Bush in the first place. But today I was reading reports in the Victoria Times-Colonist and in the Frankfurter Rundschau about Bush’s visit to old and new Europe, his first stop-over in Poland, his supposed reconciliation with Putin, his trip to St.Petersburg’s big birthday bash, his discussions with European and — gasp! — Canadian leaders, his exhortations to same to support the US war on terror that has made the world a more dangerous place, and I was suddenly reminded of that comment from bygone months: where’s Laura? And what, if anything, does Laura signify?
Where’s Laura?
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I’d been wondering about Laura myself. Bad sign.
Here’s what I think: when Bush Sr. was president, he took Barbara Bush & Laura Bush along to Saudi Arabia (I think), and they all narrowly escaped an assassination bomb attack. Laura is, apparently, Dubya’s “Rock,” and he took the attempt personally. He wants to keep her safe from harm. What I find so interesting is that what can only be explained as his secreting away of Laura is indicative of a kind of paranoid mindset (“the world is a fundamentally dangerous place, don’t trust anyone,” etc.), and I’m just a little concerned that someone with that attitude is running the most powerful country in the world. Safety, yes; paranoia, no.
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