Now let's not get the wrong impression here, George Herbert Walker Bush was not exactly the greatest friend that either America or mankind ever had. This is a dude that was the head of the CIA for many years, and he oversaw lots of their clandestine operations many of which were of dubious quality and little legality. The CIA is an organization that is famous for not listening or taking orders, that is how it has become such a useless piece of shit. In George Bush Sr.'s day, the CIA still basically answered to no one except him. Everything they did was classified as top secret so that no one could really know what the fuck they were up to at any given time. So while he has that job, he didn't really have to listen to or answer to anybody. Then he was Governor of Texas, and the only way that he had to listen to anyone there was through the system of checks and balances that Texas constitutional law mandates. Then he was Vice-President under Ronnie Reagan, and the only person that he had to answer to was Reagan, and that dude was so fuckin' out of it that he did not know what was going on so it was like having to answer to or listen to nobody. So George Bush Senior has more than a little experience at running things on his own whims. After all, he didn't listen to anyone either when he decided that America had to go after Iraq the first time back in 1991. So why then is he so pissed at his son for doing the same things that he did for his entire career? Because there is a big difference between father and son, and that is that the father had to earn the Presidency a little bit more than the son did. George Herbert Walker Bush did come from a wealthy, well-connected family that had a rather exalted place in American society, and that is a good background to be from if you aspire to the Presidency of the United States. However, that background did not give him free entitlement to the jobs that he had. At one point in his life, George Bush Sr. Was a regular soldier in the American Air Force, flying bombing missions in the South Pacific Ocean during World War 2. He was even shot down by enemy fire at one point, and crashed his plane in the sea, and had to be rescued. So he did not have it all easy and cushy every step of the way. Once he got into government service with the CIA, he developed and cultivated the connections that he needed to get to the White House like he eventually did. He cozied up to Mr. Businessman and Mr. Politician and allied himself with them and went far in the political game, all the way to the top. Now, George Bush Junior, on the other hand, did not go that route to get where he is at all. By the time that he was born, the Bush family had consolidated a place for themselves as major players in American society. George Senior was Texas governor by the time that George Junior started coming of age, so Junior enjoyed all the perks and priviliges that went with that, and enjoyed them a lot at that. Stories still abound about how Junior was Mr. Party Animal back in those days, whooping it up anywhere and everywhere anytime and all the time. When the military called during the Vietnam War, George Bush Junior did not end up being shipped out to the battlefronts in foreign lands, no, he ended up joining the Texas National Guard, where he kept the state of Texas safe from a sneak attack by the Viet Cong who were thousands of miles away. For the records, let's state that Texas was never attacked by the Viet Cong, so I guess that Junior did his job. However, Junior did not even stick around as long as he was supposed to in the Texas Guard, for he had people to see, places to go , things to do, etc. He just blew off the last part of his Guard service, and not a thing was ever made of it. He was just allowed to leave, since he was the Governor's son. Sop Junior went to college (university) and did not much else except party and chase girls and go to football games, grades were not that important to him, after all, he was the son of the Governor of Texas. He had guaranteed jobs waiting for him with his dad's big business pals. He was assured of making good money and doing minimal work for it. He ended up getting jobs like being the owner and President of the Texas Rangers baseball team. That entitled him to backbreaking work like going to dozens of baseball games in the summertime and going to meeting in plush hotels in warm climates in the wintertime and hanging out with his pals and partying and living the high life. Then he got "serious" about things. He says that he quit drinking (he says that he never did drugs, yeah right) and decided to run for Governor of Texas, like his old man did. He had automatic support in this endeavor from lots of bug businessmen and well-connected politicians that were friends of his dad, who, not coincidentally, was the Vice-President of The United States at this time. So with al that solid support, he had a relatively easy time following in his father's footsteps to the Texas Governor's mansion. From there he saw the White House beckoning, and he decided to follow his father's footsteps one more time and see if they would lead him there.he had a much harder time doing that because all of America was able to see how unqualified the dude was and how he was running on the family name and not much else. He had such a hard time at doing this that he had to rely on underhanded chicanery from a whole lot of his family and his father's friends to pull it off, but he eventually succeeded at it. So his father feels that George W. Owes him quite a debt of gratitude because he is where he is due to his family name and his father's friends and influence above all else. So George Bush Sr. Feels that he has the right to exert a little bit of influence in the current White House. After all, without him having been President number 41, his son would have had zero chance at being President number 43, or any other number of President for that matter. Without his father's influence and connections, the dude would have a job working at a Mc Donald's or something, as he is not at all qualified to be President of the United States.So when George Bush Jr. Basically told his old man to fuck off on Iraq and did exactly what he wanted to do anyway, he was seen by his dad as being about as ungrateful as it gets. So the old man has been stewing and simmering over this issue for a while now, and he has seen an opportunity to get back at and embarrass his ungrateful son by giving his award to Ted Kennedy. So this all shows the depth of the current President's bullheadedness in that he won't even listen to his own father or his father's friends, even though they are the ones that handed the dude a career on a silver platter. If the dude is not even willing to listen to these people anymore, one has to wonder just who he is listening to. He says that it is God, but that is debatable. It looks more like George W. Bush is a man out of control, a man that has been so spoiled by his privelidged upbringing, that he feels that he has an entitlement to everything that he wants in life and that no one can stop that. For a man that is the position that George W. Bush is in, that is about the most frightening attitude that one can have and it is humanity as a whole that will ultimately pay for all of this.