They used to marvel at Bill Clinton's ability to compartentalise the different things in his life. While under terrible stress in one area (all those Monica Lewinsky charges, or the Whitewater affair) he would appear in public, chair meetings, handle official duties with smiling ease. Masterly stuff.
Well step back Bill, here comes George. There Bill Clinton's successor was on Monday, just off the plane, plucking not one but two children from the crowd, holding them lovingly in the crook of his arm. And while Mr Bush twinkled and savoured that camera moment at Aldergrove, other children of the same age in Baghdad were suffering the consequences of his commands. The lucky ones were lying wounded in hospitals; the unlucky ones – and there were lots – were lying in their graves. What a feat of compartmentalisation by the Bush man! Tens all round.
Not that Tony Blair was short on chutzpah either. When Bush arrived at Hillsborough Castle, he shook hands with Blair and said something complimentary about the place. And Blair smiled back – did you see him? – with that look of boyish modesty he does so well. Shucks, George, it's just my other little island – kinda nice in parts, dontcha think?
Of course these occasions bring out the worst in many of us. Malcolm Muggeridge said it best: "In most people, veneration for power exists quite irrespective of who exercises it." Some media sources almost suffered twisted blood over the past week. On the one hand, they wanted to dance all over Sinn Féin, for being against the Iraq war and yet meeting with the man who had launched it. On the other hand, their natural instinct in the presence of power was to tug the forelock until it touched the red carpet. They did a bit of both, but mainly the grovelling thing.
So was Bush welcome? No, insofar as he came here to confer with Blair about an illegal, cruel and highly dangerous war. If there hadn't been a war in Iraq and if his best buddy in that war hadn't been Tony Blair, Bush would no more have considered flying to Hillsborough than he'd have considered phoning Michael Moore to come round for a few jars. The 3,000 demonstrators at Hillsborough spoke for the majority of the Irish people on Monday evening there should have been no war in our name, and no war council in our country.
But – and this is where it gets slightly complex, and where the twisted blood hacks get the veneration staggers – if Bush and Blair were here to help push all signatories of the Good Friday Agreement into doing what they signed up to in 1998, then the majority of the Irish people welcomed the presence of both men. For months now, whether for selfish political reasons or otherwise, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern have been pushing hard to get our peace process rolling again. The presence of Bush's shoulder at the wheel, while fraught with irony, may just have made that vital difference.
So will the combined efforts of the three men restart the engine? There's a good chance it may. Republicans have made it clear to the point of tedium that they're committed to the political path. The IRA is not going to go back to war and the leaders of unionism know this. So the question is not will republican paramilitaries say the war is over/ stand down/ disband/ decommission or hop over any of the other pointless hurdles that unionism keeps erecting. The question is, will unionist leaders finally have the courage and will and skill to tell their people that the time has come. Not for taking yet another mad rush out of office or up the Never-Never cul-de-sac, but for taking the hand of friendship that has been extended by republicans and nationalists for near on 10 years now.
This is your moment, David. Do the right thing.
