by HAROON SIDDIQUI
And now the big questions: Did George W. Bush wage war under false pretenses? And will he be a one-term president?
Is it too early to ask if George W. Bush could become a one-term president?
His entire presidency has been geared to avoiding the fate of his father. Yet, suddenly, nothing is going right for him.
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The bad news, brewing for months, had been lost in the war on terrorism, which morphed into the war on Iraq. But a firestorm is breaking out even on that previously sacrosanct front.
Almost every aspect of the war is being questioned. At stake is nothing less than the integrity of the administration on a fundamental issue: the president waging war under false pretenses.
The president's cockiness is evaporating. His "bring 'em on" taunt to the Iraqis — deemed "unworthy of his office" by Democratic Senator John Kerry, and "phony and macho" by House minority leader Dick Gephardt — has given way to evasiveness over the tall tale of Niger.
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The America that can guide missiles and bombs across the oceans cannot manage, in 10 weeks, to get electricity and water running, leaving Iraqis stewing in the 50-degree heat. Essential services are said to be in worse shape than during Saddam's rule. Ditto law and order.
The America that uses satellite-run global positioning systems to guide its troops across the globe cannot get a two-bit TV station going in Baghdad to communicate with the locals, who are tuning in Iranian TV beamed from across the border.
The America that expected flowers for its troops from a liberated nation now confronts the reality of losing one soldier a day in the "shooting gallery" that is Iraq, as Ted Kennedy said at a Senate hearing.
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