Bush/Blair Sidebar at the G-8

This candid conversation between President Bush and Prime Minister Blair is one of those very rare occasions where we get to be a fly on the wall and hear a private conversation between two heads of state discussing an international crisis. The video and audio from CNN is here. Here is a transcript provided by the BBC (with a few additions I have added in brackets where the audio is clear to me):

Bush: What about Kofi Annan – he seems alright. [I told him] I don’t like [the sequence of ] his ceasefire plan. His attitude is basically ceasefire and everything sorts out…. But I think… [You know what I’m saying.]

Blair: [Good point]. Yeah the only thing I think [that] is really difficult is that we can’t stop this without getting international presence agreed. I think what you guys have talked about which is the criticism of the [inaudible word). I am perfectly happy to try [to] see what the lie of the land is, but you need that done quickly because otherwise it will spiral.

Bush: Yeah I think Condi’s [US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) gonna go soon.

Blair: Well that’s all that matters but if you [it will take some time to get that together] … You see at least it gets it going.

Bush: I agree it’s a process [I agree]…I told her your offer too.

Blair: Well it’s only if she needs the ground prepared as it were. [Obviously] if she goes out she HAS to succeed [as it were] whereas I can just go and [just talk]…

Bush: You see the irony is what they need to is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s all over…

Blair: Dunno… Syria….

Bush: Why?

Blair: Because I think this is all part of the same thing…

Bush: (with mouth full of bread) Yeah

Blair: Look – what does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine. If you get a solution in Israel and Palestine. Iraq goes in the right way

Bush: Yeah – he’s [through]

Blair: Yeah…. He’s had it. That’s what all this is about – it’s the same with Iran.

Bush: I felt like telling Kofi to call, to get on the phone to Assad and make something happen.

Blair: Yeah

BUSH: [We’re not] blaming Israel and [we’re not] blaming the Lebanese government. [Nobody’s]…. [Microphone turned off by Blair]

Five things I find interesting about this conversation. First, it is a truly candid moment. How rare is that in this day and age? Second, it confirms what we know already, that Bush and Blair are extremely close allies who strategize together. Blair offers to lay the ground work for subsequent negotiations by Secretary Rice. Third, it confirms that Bush and Blair are happy to work with Annan, but they don’t have much respect for his simplistic view of the situation in the Middle East. Fourth, it underscores the efforts by the United States and the United Kingdom to work through this crisis using an international coalition presence on the ground, apparently a reference to peacekeeping forces or perhaps something more. Fifth, why does the expletive excite the press so much? The candid nature of the conversation is what is really newsworthy.