George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

During the 1980's, Graham had run crusades in the Soviet bloc, something that is hard to
do without intelligence connections. In May, 1982, he had created a furore with remarks
that he had seen no evidence of religious repression in the USSR. "I am not a communist
and have not joined the Communist party and was never asked to join the Communist
Party," Graham had told reporters upon his arrival in New York. [fn 78]
Now, during the week that Bush unleashed war and genocide, Graham became a fixture
in the White House, where he was Bush's overnight houseguest. "George Bush has the
highest moral standards of almost anyone I know," Graham told reporters. "Bush is the
best friend I have in the world outside my immediate staff." Some noted that Graham had
often abounded with fulsome praise for presidents, including Carter; power and
godliness, for Graham, went together. The line he recited several days later at the
National Prayer Breakfast was standard Bush boiler plate: "There come times in history
when nations have to stand against some monstrous evil, like Nazism." On January 28,
Bush would proclaim a virtual crusade against Arab Iraq: according to Bush, his war had
"everything to do with what religion embodies, good versus evil, right versus wrong,
human dignity and freedom versus tyranny and oppression. We will prevail because of
the support of the American people, armed with a trust in God." [fn 79]
But surely all was not spiritual that weekend in Camp David. One sign is that First Lady
Barbara Bush came back with a broken leg. What had happened? A few weeks earlier,
George and Bar had granted a joint interview to two fawning and sycophantic reporters
from People weekly. During this interview, Bush was asked, "Mr. President, this is an
understandably tough period. How do you deal with the stress?" Bush answered: "Well, I
have this dog named Ranger and this wife named Barbara and a couple of grandchildren."
At this point, Barbara Bush broke in to say "Thought you were gonna say, 'I kick the dog,
kick the wife.'" [fn 80] Had Barbara Bush suffered the fate of a battered woman during
that pre-war weekend in Camp David? The official story was that she had slid down an
icy slope on a saucer sled and hit a tree, producing a "non-displaced fracture of the fibula
bone in the left leg." According to Mrs. Bush's press secretary, Anna Perez, George had
yelled "Bail out! Bail out!" as Mrs. Bush accelerated toward the tree, but she had not
heeded his advice. The incident had allegedly occurred during a sledding party after
church on Sunday, January 13, in the presence four of the Bush's grandchildren (ages
6,4,4, and 1), and Bush loyalist Arnold Schwarzenegger, the chairman of the President's
Council on Physcial Fitness. Bush's daughter Dorothy LeBlond and his daughter in law
Margaret, may have been present or nearby, as may Schwarzenegger's wife Maria Shriver
of NBC, and her infant daughter. But only the First Lady's press secretary spoke in public
of the incident, which has therefore remained somewhat obscure. When the presidential
party returned by helicopter to the White House that evening, Mrs. Bush was carried
indoors in a wheelchair. [fn 81]
On that same day, Soviet troops acting in the name of a self-styled "National Salvation
Committee" massacred more than a dozen Lithuanian patriots. Bush's response was in the
mildest and most craven of terms, saying that there was "no justification for the use of
force," but taking absolutely no steps to bring that message home to Moscow; the New
World Order was exposed once again as the law of the strong over the weak.