MEDIA: Bush's National Security Advisor thinks Nepal and Tibet are the same

Watch President Bush's National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, repeatedly confuse Tibet with Nepal while appearing on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos. He really doesn't know that Nepal and Tibet are two different places, does he?

I'm wondering why Stephanopoulos never corrected Hadley.

Here is Huffington Post's transcript (watch how he repeats it not once, but several times).

"If countries are really concerned about Nepal, we shouldn't have this sort of non-issue of opening ceremonies or not. They should do the hard work of quiet diplomacy to urge the Chinese government -- in their interest -- to take advantage of this opportunity to do something," Hadley said.

He went on, "The way to deal with the issue of Nepal is not by some -- a statement that you're not going to the opening ceremonies and say, therefore, I checked the Nepal box."

And it didn't end there. "What he's doing on Nepal is what we think the international community ought to be doing, which is approaching the Chinese privately through diplomatic channels and sending a very firm message of concern for human rights, a concern for what's happening in Nepal, urging the Chinese government to understand that it is in their interest to reach out to representatives of the Dalai Lama, and to show, while the whole world is watching China, that they are determined to treat their citizens with dignity and respect. There is an opportunity here."

The New York Times says:

In his ABC interview, Mr. Hadley referred at least a half-dozen times to Nepal when he seemed clearly to be speaking of Tibet. A White House spokesman later confirmed that Mr. Hadley had misspoken.

Seems like "misspoken" is the new word in American politics.

Comments? Please post them below.

Comments

[Jaya Kamlani]

Anup,

Why don't we have our SAJA editor Arthur Dudney give Stephen Hadley a one-week intensive course on South Asian studies? He might learn more than just about Nepal and Tibet.

Stephen Hadley could also become a SAJA member and read the SAJA Forum every night before bedtime. He might really learn about diversity in South Asian culture too. What do you think?

Jaya Kamlani

[Mayank Chhaya]

Give Stephen Hadley a break. For a Bush administration official to be off target by a few hundred miles is akin to getting it right. I am utterly gratified that he did not think that Nepal which is Tibet is actually on the Red Sea.

No one cares to point out that the media superstar George Stephanopoulos did not think it fit to correct the man in charge of the security of the world's most powerful nation. Perhaps he was giving Hadley a long rope.

Mayank

[Mayank Chhaya]

PS: As long as Hadley could locate Tibet AKA Nepal somewhere on this planet, we are doing well.

[panditjugalkishoreshastri]

haha

giddiap mayank! texas school system wants to rewrite history books. they don't believe in repeating it.

huzza

[Srabani]

serious gaffe and totally inexcusable since nepal is definitely on the national security advisor's radar these days given the election results there....

[Trips]

UNBELIEVABLE! I had to watch it three times to convince myself it wasn't just a spoof/joke. And the whole time I was wondering how much people in the edit suites were laughing while the taping was going on! Scary that this man is the National Security Advisor. But in his defense remember what Miss South Carolina said about why Americans can't read maps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, some people out there in our nation don't have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future"

Explains everything really :-)