Bush Invokes 9/11 as Year Five Begins
| VIDEO: Bush talking \”progress\” and invoking 9/11 yet again. |
There he goes again, invoking 9/11. I guess there is one consolation. Our president
did actually say we "can" win, not that the mission was accomplished.
Small step. Little consolation.
Bush can spin all he wants, but Iraq
by the numbers says it all. Still, Bush rambles on that Iraq will take months,
not weeks. If you\’re talking about getting out, that is true. If you\’re talking
about some mythical "victory," well, that was flushed in Abu Ghraib.
However, nothing is as insulting as Mr. Bush claiming that if we don\’t continue
the military death spiral, sending our troops on interminable redeployments,
we will be hit by another 9/11, while he blathers on about "progress."
The New Yorker has a compelling story about the Iraqis view as we
begin year five. It\’s not anything close to Mr. Bush\’s propaganda.
Most of the people Othman and Laith knew had left Iraq. House by house, Baghdad
was being abandoned. Othman was considering his options: move his parents
from their house (in an insurgent stronghold) to his sister’s house
(in the midst of civil war); move his parents and brothers to Syria (where
there was no work) and live with his friend in Jordan (going crazy with boredom
while watching his savings dwindle); go to London and ask for asylum (and
probably be sent back); stay in Baghdad for six more months until he could
begin a scholarship that he’d won, to study journalism in America (or
get killed waiting). Beneath his calm good humor, Othman was paralyzed—he
didn’t want to leave Baghdad and his family, but staying had become
impossible. Every day, he changed his mind.From the hotel window, Othman could see the palace domes of the Green Zone
directly across the Tigris River. “It’s sad,” he told me.
“With all the hopes that we had, and all the dreams, I was totally against
the word ‘invasion.’ Wherever I go, I was defending the Americans
and strongly saying, ‘America was here to make a change.’ Now
I have my doubts.”Laith was more blunt: “Sometimes, I feel like we’re standing
in line for a ticket, waiting to die.” … ..Betrayed
by George Packer
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