Pope violently lashes Bush — with his tongue

The Guardian has this report on Dubya’s gloriously ignominious visit to the Vatican:

The Pope yesterday subjected George Bush to a very public, relentlessly critical assessment of the US administration’s performance in Iraq, attacking “deplorable” abuses of prisoners and calling for an international solution to the country’s crisis.

During the president’s visit to the Vatican, which the administration had hoped would help him win Catholic votes in November’s presidential election, the Pope warned Mr Bush he would never succeed in the war on terrorism if he failed to ensure respect for basic human rights.

I’m not happy in a nasty vindictive I–hate–Bush–whoever–he–is way. I’m very very happy that this has happened, though, because the man reallly has mucked up so much about the world since late 2001 that he’s always deserved a public dressing–down by someone. And since the Pope isn’t as partisan diplomatically as politicians usually are, who better to carry out the job?

However, as I said in a previous post, the Pope is a quavering old man and what he had to say has made no real impression on Bush or America. (It may affect the Catholic vote there in time, but that remains to be seen.) Largely it won’t change a damn thing. Of that I am certain.