I guess it's good that he got a colonoscopy -- he uses his GI tract to make policy.

spiked-politics | Column | Bush makes 'history' on the hoof In other words, both speeches were shaped far more by emotional kneejerk responses to events than by any 'historic' vision for the Middle East. Thus a Bush aide admitted that the one new proposal in his June address - the suggestion that Yasser Arafat must go - was largely motivated by the president's 'gut feeling' about the Palestinian leader.

The incoherent state of US policy was clear in the run-up to the latest 'historic' presidential speech. When he met Egyptian President Hosni Barak on 8 June, Bush said that the USA must start working immediately towards establishing a Palestinian state. Yet two days later, meeting with Israeli premier Ariel Sharon, Bush said there could be no progress before sweeping reform of the Palestinian Authority (1).

These confused signals were hardly surprising given that, as one Washington Middle East expert noted around the same time, the Bush administration had 'still not really made a basic decision on what they're going to do or even what the objective is' (2). Bush's long-anticipated speech was being rewritten until almost the moment before he delivered it. The 'ditch Arafat' line was apparently a final addition, presumably made after the president developed a late-night gut feeling.

Bush does not have command of his Middle East policy. But nor, as some have suggested, is he being led by the nose by Ariel Sharon; a state of six million citizens does not tell the USA what to do. Rather, the US administration is making up policy as it goes along (or if you prefer, making 'history' on the hoof) in reaction to an out-of-control cycle of events.