I’ve seen interviews with the NYT’s John Burns on a couple of news shows recently. There can be little doubt that few people know more about the situation in Iraq than he does.
A couple of things stood out during the interviews. Burns told Tim Russert that, aside from North Korea, Iraq under Saddam Hussein was the nastiest place he’d ever been in his 30-plus years as a foreign correspondent. With that in mind, he says that most Iraqis would not turn back the clock and indeed hold out hope that the situation will turn around. He repeated that view last night on a CSPAN interview with Brian Lamb when said that “though the situation is indeed dire, all hope is not lost.”
Burns also had a couple of interesting stories about both Bush, father and son. Burns was serving as Peking bureau chief while Bush Sr. was serving as special envoy to China. They became tennis partners, and Burns praised not only the elder Bush’s skill but his graciousness both on and off the court. He first met the younger Bush when he came to China to visit his family, and the two quickly became “men about town” in Peking.
Burns didn’t see him again until 2006, when the president visited Baghdad. He didn’t have a White House press pass, so he was sitting in the audience listening to the president speak to the troops when two Secret Service agents approached him and strongly suggested that he follow them. Burns was seated in a room and, a few minutes later, in walks President Bush. Burns recalled the president was not only gracious in recalling their time together in Peking, but he seemed energized by being in the presence of the troops. At that time, Burns said, Bush truly seemed to believe the situation in Iraq finally was turning around. The next six months, of course, would bring the worst violence since the war began.
I’m certainly not suggesting that Burns calls the situation in Iraq anything but what it is. But it still struck me that President Bush might actually have a friend at the NYT.
