Bush Doesn’t Get It. Bush Gets It.
Today’s Iraq war cold shower is brought to you by President Bush’s media advisors, who in an extraordinarily dumb move got the president to invoke in a speech today “the tragedy of Vietnam” to bolster support for his own war.
In other words, bring up the worst defeat in American military history to defend staying the course in Iraq.
I suppose this is yet another example of a beleaguered president appealing to his prune-like base, or something, because there are but a few Americans who think the U.S. would have won in Vietnam had it just kept at it beyond the 10 years and 58,000 lives that were lost.
Yet again showing his propensity for being the last person in the room to get a bad joke, the president has finally acknowledged that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whom he once extolled as “the right guy for Iraq,” is in fact the biggest obstacle to the success of the last-gasp surge strategy.
This especially egregious example of reverse leadership – that is to say speaking out after practically everyone of any consequence already has, as opposed to taking the lead – came on the same day as Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, called political progress “extremely disappointing” and a day after Senators Carl Levin and John Warner suggested that it was time for the Iraqi parliament to give Al-Maliki the bum’s rush.
Al-Maliki’s response was to lash out at Bush and the U.S., declaring that no one has the right to impose timetables on his government and that Iraq “can find friends elsewhere.”
Said the prime minister:
“No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq government. It was elected by its people.”
7 Responses to “Bush Doesn’t Get It. Bush Gets It.”
I wonder who Bush is speaking to, especially considering that none of the candidates who will likely be President are advocating a pull-out.
I said it in response to Michael’s post, and I’ll say it here again: It doesn’t make any difference if Maliki stays or goes.
It’s crazy to think that putting a new person in charge is going to make any difference when you consider just how weak the Iraqi government really is currently. Mohammed himself would likely face 100 to 1 odds of fixing Iraq on an American timetable.
While I agree it does not make much difference if Maliki stays or goes I am stunned by one recent article reported today by CNN…
excerpts below…
“But for the first time, exasperated front-line U.S. generals talk openly of non-democratic governmental alternatives, and while the two top U.S. officials in Iraq still talk about preserving the country’s nascent democratic institutions, they say their ambitions aren’t as “lofty” as they once had been.
“Democratic institutions are not necessarily the way ahead in the long-term future,” said Brig. Gen. John “Mick” Bednarek, part of Task Force Lightning in Diyala province, one of the war’s major battlegrounds….
…Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of Task Force Lightning, also reflected a less lofty American goal for Iraq’s future.
“I would describe it as leaving an effective government behind that can provide services to its people, and security. It needs to be an effective and functioning government that is really a partner with the United States and the rest of the world in this fight against the terrorists,” said Mixon, who will not be perturbed if such goals are reached without democracy.
“Well, see that all over the Middle East,” he said, stating that democracy is merely an option, that Iraqis are free to choose or reject.”
The rest of the report is linked below….
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/08/22/iraq.democracy/index.html
It seems now that the Bush and the neoconservative grand vision of Democratization may be fading and we may have removed one dictator …only to now settle for something similar???? Granted, given the regional makeup and history , a non democratic government may be the only viable alternative. However if that is the case, and we know there were no WMD’s ….why have we sacrificed over 4000 Americans and thousands of Iraqi’s?
Sounds like some generals are starting to get it finally. Democracy needs to be earned by the folks that are going to live in it, you can’t just beat it into them. And Chris, why did we sacrifice all those lives? Because Bush is an idiot, and when idiots get power people get killed.
This is the reason all those Iraqis and Americans have had their lives destroyed:
“By 2010 we will need 50 million barrels a day. The Middle East, with two-thirds of the oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize lies.” – Dick Cheney, 1999
Oh please, Iraq oil is a drop in the bucket for our needs. If anything it was done to get worldwide oil prices up to their current levels. That way, it doesn’t matter where you get it, you’re still making 3x profit on the same stuff.
Or because rich Republican contractors need lucrative no-bid contracts, and defense contractors need multi-billion dollar weapons sales. Isn’t that what the booming economy is based on?