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Does Bush Know About Iraq?
The conversation went like this…
George Stephanopolous: What does a civil war look like?
George Will: This! This
is a civil war.
Someone needs to tell George W. Bush, because he doesn't seem to know. But
then again, he's not exactly listening.
As for the cable punditocracy, they're calling it “sectarian violence,” while they discuss how the U.S. military keeps from getting in between the fighting factions.
And more bubble talk is likely in the days
ahead, as the gap between Bush's Iraq rhetoric and Iraq reality threatens to
widen further. Last Friday, Bush delivered another speech extolling
Iraq's “liberation” and its “incredible progress” toward
democracy – at the same time that government officials, speaking anonymously,
warned of “a descent into civil war,” while Reuel Marc Gerecht,
a think-tank hawk in Washington, described the political landscape in Iraq as
“very, very, very bad.” Bush said again Friday that “we're carrying
out our clear strategy for victory in Iraq” – even though, according to
news reports, American officials are voicing concerns that initial troop withdrawals
from Iraq might not be possible this year after all because of the growing sectarian
violence between the Sunnis and Shiites that has halted political negotiations
for a new government. “Bush operates inside a shell,” says, says historian
Robert Dallek, author of a lauded two-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. “He
and Johnson are similar, if you look at Iraq and Vietnam. Johnson got locked
into a position on his war, and he couldn't let go of it. And of course, this
was ruinous for his presidency. Bush is similarly very stubborn and single-minded
– 'I don't accept criticism, I can't be wrong.'”
Bush
in a bubble: Is he cut off from political reality?
W. the delegator has disintegrated into W. the dissembler, as
his speeches turn into out of touch ravings about a reality no one else can
see. George W. Bush is Lyndon Johnson without the talent, but just as obstinate
on their perspective wars.
There's little doubt that President Bush is unwilling to admit
reality on the ground in Iraq. He's not even pointing to the recent turn of
violence, after the Golden Mosque was bombed, as being on the brink of something
we cannot control. A time when American troops are actually making things much
worse than better, simply because we are present. We're talking about how our troops stand down when sectarian fights start. Got civil war?
Then there's that little reality in the badlands of Pakistan, which I've written about many times before.
 |
| We know where he is. |
Whatever ambiguity there was in
the past is gone: Bin Laden is in Pakistan. … Al Qaeda's money,
inspiration and organizational abilities have helped turn Pakistan's Pashtun
belt into the extremist base it is today, but U.S. and Pakistani policies
have helped more. Although the Taliban and al Qaeda extremists were routed
from Afghanistan by U.S. forces, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's
refusal to put enough U.S. troops on the ground let the extremists escape
and regroup in Pakistan's Pashtun belt. The Taliban settled in Balochistan
where they had originated before 1994, while al Qaeda members hid in the tribal
agencies they knew well. Bin Laden had built tunnels and caves there for the
anti-Soviet mujaheddin in the 1980s.What followed was a disaster: For
27 months after the fall of the Taliban regime, Pakistan's president, Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, Washington's closest ally in the region, allowed the extremists
free rein in the Pashtun tribal areas to re-establish training camps for militants
who had escaped Afghanistan. These included Arabs, Central Asians, Chechens,
Kashmiris, Africans, Uighurs and a smattering of East Asians. It was
a mini-replay of the gathering in Afghanistan after bin Laden arrived there
in 1996.(snip)
Washington's recent decison to start pulling U.S. troops
out of Afghanistan this year has only reinforced al Qaeda's belief that it
is winning. After nearly five years of avoiding capture or death, every single
day that bin Laden stays alive is a day that inspires the extremists who protect
him and join his ranks.
President Musharaff has never had a fan in me. Believing that
he was so weak within his country, I felt we once again had a dictator as friend,
which was better than any other alternative being offered, but which also meant
Musharaff obviously had to turn away from some of what was playing out in Pakistan
or die trying to fight it. Now he's evidently let the area turn into a bin Laden
base, but Bush continues with he's one of our strongest allies mantra.
Remind you of anything?
Bush isn't in a bubble. He's living in an alternative universe.
A place where he can “stay the course” without offering any correction,
and life will go on as he dreams. Iraq is not a civil war because we're making
progress, because Bush can't conceive of what is playing out on the ground.
President Bush has bought into the happy warrior scenario and isn't turning
back. Musharaff is an ally, so Pakistan isn't a problem. We've routed the Taliban
and put our guy in place, so that's done. Rumsfeld isn't part of the problem
either, in Bush's world. As for Iraq, well, it's just hard work, damn reality, full steam ahead.
Somebody wake up the president. Or at the very least, buy him
a subscription to Foreign Affairs.
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