I Love George Bush!

Holy mother! Did I just hear what I think I heard? Someone from the Middle East said, "I love George Bush." Ok, so Turkey is not officially the Middle East, but the place this guy is from might as well be Afghanistan. And he declared his undying love and support for George W. Bush?!?! His English is not so great, so perhaps I heard him incorrectly. Asking him to repeat himself, he said it again! I asked him if he knew what the word "love" meant and he assured me that he did and that he thought George was great. Huh? What? What kind of bizzaro universe was I in? Then he went on to clarify that because George Bush killed Arabs and he hates Arabs, he loves George Bush. In fact, he continued, he wished he could join the American Army so he could kill Arabs too. Yeah. He said that. Outloud. That pretty much sums up the "Kurdish situation" here in Turkey. Don't believe anyone when the say it's getting better, or the government is fixing relations between the Kurds and the Turkish government. Bullshit. When there are people walking around the streets of Istanbul who feel this strongly about killing people in cold blood for no reason other than their heritage, something is rotten in Denmark. Or, in this case, Turkey.
The Kurds and Turks have been killing each other for years and will continue to do so as long as people feel this way. The man I was speaking to told me that his cousin was killed by the Turkish Army and that his own village was burned down by the Army because someone living there was suspected of helping members of the PKK (a terrorist organization in the east and southeast of Turkey who fight for Kurds to have their own land, and barring that, the ability to speak their own language and practice their culture). Of course, when I pointed out to him that his cousin was a member of the PKK and had most likely murdered some Turkish soldiers, he got quiet and agreed. But, he assured me, he still loved George Bush and hated the Arabs.
I was pretty quick to assure him that George Bush was not going to return his feelings and would not hesitate to kill him too if there was some vague notion of rich oil fields to be found under Kurdish tribal lands. It all fell on deaf ears though. The man had formed a one way admiration society for GW and that was that!
Now if only American propaganda had been that good in favor of Bush. Scary thought!!!