No change in Iraq policy
Somehow, this just summed up the Bush strategy on Iraq. (From a NYTimes "analysis" piece on Bush's loss of support.)
Speeches, but, "As ever, there will be no change in policy. "
As ever, there will be no change in policy.
Speeches, but, "As ever, there will be no change in policy. "
posted by mikevotes at
7:33 AM
5 Comments:
That's what happens when Karl Rove, Karen Hughes and Frank Luntz are calling the shots on policy for the GOP - it's all about the p.r.
By
Reality-Based Educator, at 9:22 AM
Everytime he goes and sells the war, the realities kick in and the poll numbers drop. Bush claims he doesn't look at the polls, but then he goes out and tries to boost the ratings.
By
Lew Scannon, at 10:06 AM
Leslie, he'd also have to ask for help, which through his weird oedipal lens is never gonna happen. God, I miss having grownups in charge.
And, reality-based, I really like your point a couple of posts down that you echo here. What a better position we would be in if these guys could govern half as well as they divide to count votes.
And, Lew, I don't see these speeches doing anymore than the "strategy for victory" tour in December. Each time he does this the effect is less, and the realities quickly overwhelm his words.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 1:47 PM
If Preznit Bush were't a crazy person, it would be difficult for him to give another "Strategy For Victory" speech with a straight face after the violence in Iraq today.
The NY Times reports 2 car bombs went off in Sadr City, a Shiite neighborhood in Badghdad today, killing at least 35 (the Wash Post puts the toll at 41.)
The Times goes on to say that today's violence is the biggest attempt to set off sectarian violence in Iraq since the bombing of the Golden Mosque last month. Sadr's militiamen took to the streets with rifles after the bombing, set up checkpoints and looked to secure the area.
I wonder what Sadr's men are going to do after they clean up the carnage? Maybe cause some carnage of their own on Sunnis?
I really do wish that some American politician would just level with all of us and say "Look, the Iraq war was a major fuck-up. The people running it are idiots and any chance we had at success has diminished greatly because of their corruption and ineptitude. But we are now at a crossroads in this war that will greatly affect the entire Middle East region. Either we send in 250,000 more troops to the 130,000 we already have there for the next 5-10 years to REALLY quell the sectarian violence and help build and ensure political stability in the country or we pull completely out now. But this half-assed "Iraqification" process ain't working. All we're doing is training Iraqi Sunnis and Shia to be better shots than Dick Cheney when the civil war breaks out in full. And every American soldier who dies during this half-assed process is dying for NO GOOD REASON other than for the president and other supporters of this war to save some face before the complete withdrawl."
I wish somebody would say that. Because I think that's the truth. Either fight the fucking war with both hands or don't fight it at all. You remember how the right wing always slammed LBJ for fighting a half-assed war in Vietnam? Well, welcome to Part II in Iraq. I think Al Haig said something similar to this at a symposium on Vietnam yesterday. And he's right (much as it hurts me to have to admit that Haig is right about anything.)
I was against this war from the beginning. I thought Bush was lying about the WMDs, I thought Cheney was lying about what was going to happen after Saddam was taken down, and I thought most Americans just wanted to go in and kick some Arab ass after 9/11 and didn't care much whose ass that was. But now that we are stuck there and have created such an awful murderous mess, I just wish SOMEBODY, either the policymakers who created the policy, the politicans who pushed it, or the media people who cheered for it (the Tom Friedmans and Joe Kleins of the world) would take responsibility for this thing and say, "Yeah, we fucked up and we've killed hundreds of thousands of people in the process. Now we want to fix what we fucked up."
But we won't here that. Instead we'll hear another "optimistic" speech from our "optimistic" preznit who is "optimistic" about the future in Iraq. And we'll also hear from the wingnuts how the people who have criticized this war or the men and woman running it ultimately cost us victory and are "traitors."
In other words, we'll hear wingnut bullshit that will have nothing to do with reality. And most of the members of the media, afraid to hear from Karl Rove and/or other conservative crybabies like Brent Bozell, won't hold anybody accountable for anything that they do or say. So this meme will take hold for history (or at least the wingnut version of it): the "cut-and-runners" cost us victory in the Iraq war.
By
Reality-Based Educator, at 2:43 PM
I'm surprised as well that nobody major has really stood up to be the antiwar representative. You would think somebody would take that position at least as a political play.
And, I think that the images out of Iraq are building up an immunity to what you call "wingnut bullshit." The bump after each one of these PR initiatives has gotten smaller and smaller and the ease of winning people back has gotten much harder.
And as for a claim of error on the part of the "war supporters," I'm not that surprised. The editorialists and politicians make their money by consistently holding positions. They are not allowed by the system to waver or change without repurcussion. Look at the furor when Bill Kristol of Buckley even made some comments on Iraq just slightlyoff their usual songbook.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 3:08 PM
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