Jon Stewart began his commentary on President Bush's trip to the Middle East with a satirical pastiche based on a current movie, The Bucket List.

"If you had only one year to live (picture of Bush) in the White House, would you do the most obvious thing? Create a list of things to experience with your black friends? (Picture of Bush and Condoleezza Rice) This January, the Bush administration, in association with Rob Reiner, presents the Middle East trip of a lifetime. They went looking to fortify strategic alliances. (Bush and Rice again) They wound up -- finding themselves."

Stewart then played a clip of Bush landing in Saudi Arabia, with the sounds of a military salute in the background. "You can actually hear America bombing border countries," he joked. This was followed by The Star-Spangled Banner being played by a Saudi military band that appeared to consist entirely of trombones and tubas. "Is it me, or did that sound sarcastic?" Stewart asked.

"Obviously, there's a bit of a friendly rivalry between Israel and the other Mideast countries," Stewart continued. "When Bush visited Israel they presented him a single rose in a beautiful ceremony, whereas in Dubai -- whoa! -- he gets the whole centerpiece. In your face, Zionist florists!"

"Dubai also treated the president to some some local children's traditional folkdance," Stewart went on. "Very lovely. ... But if I remember the trip to Israel correctly, I think I've got to give this to Israel, because they went with the Donna Sommer version of 'Sholem Aleichem.'"

Stewart went on to point out that "a lot of the receptions that [Bush] got had kind of a passive-aggressive edge, as a lot of the greetings that he got in these countries appeared to disintegrate into some kind of international game of 'how silly can we make America's president look.'" Stewart illustrated this with clips of Bush holding a falcon, dancing with a sword, and drinking tea.

Bush also addressed a group of US soldiers who yelled "hoo-ah" in response to everything he said. "It's an all-purpose exclamation for the Army," Stewart explained.

"There's no doubt in my mind, when history was written, the final page will say..." Bush began.

"I believe you just talked about the future of current history in the past tense," Stewart commented. "Hoo-ah."

This video is from Comedy Central's A Daily Show, broadcast January 15, 2008.