Bush's speech today: Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations for Victory

The Iraq speech that Bush's NSA wrote for him really laid it on thick today in Philadelphia. Right there in the town that spawned the intellect that formed and established our democracy centuries ago, our country's most non-intellectual leader, once again, hijacked our developed vocabulary and dumbed-down the meaning of 'victory'.

"Total victory . . ." Bush proclaimed at the start of the war. "We will accept nothing less than total victory in Iraq." he echoed last week in the second installment of his presidential rehabilitation tour. But, it was not so much victory for Iraqis or Americans that Bush seeks in his rhetoric. He is in a desperate search for approval in the face of a near total collapse of public support for his invasion and occupation.

Media shills this week gave Bush some hope that his latest PR assault on his low poll numbers, Operation Doublespeak, had muddied the withdrawal waters that so many dipped their toes into, or completely submerged themselves in after Murtha courageously pointed out that the king was in his skivvies. While posturing at the podium like Patton, "Victory" he said last week, "will be achieved when insurgents and others seeking to derail democracy in Iraq can no longer threaten the future of the nation; when Iraqi security forces can safeguard their own citizens; and when Iraq is not a haven for terrorists plotting attacks against the U.S."

However, he contradicts his own sweeping proclamations with mealy-mouthed qualifications and hedging which suggests either the laying of a feather bed for bug-out, or more likely, a sleight of hand, where overdue troops leave others to continue Bush's fractured mandate for success. Almost all of the justifications that he used to begin the war have collapsed into a nebulous defense of the propped up government we helped install and professions of concern for the Iraqis, who he has separated in his rhetoric into 'rejectionists' and Saddamists' and such. But, nothing in Iraq, save the advancement of the Shia majority that our country once kept under our heel with our support of the Batthist regime of Saddam Hussein, has worked or is working as we were promised at the start of this thing years ago. Bush admits as much in his dissembling defense of his policy.

“Rebuilding a nation devastated by a dictator is a large undertaking,” the president said. “It’s even harder when terrorists are trying to blow up that which the Iraqis are trying to build.” It's hard work, he says, work that we are doing a half-assed job at. Bush lays it out in more detail in the speeches that were prepared for him:

This on Dec.7, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051207-1.html

". . . after American troops cleared the terrorists out of a city and moved onto the next mission, there weren't enough forces, Iraqi forces, to hold the area."

Mosul is "is still not receiving enough electricity"

"Terrorist intimidation is still a concern." he said. "This past week, people hanging election posters were attacked and killed." Yet, Bush says, " . . . freedom is taking hold in Mosul"

And today, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051212-4.html

" On the economic side," he said, "we're helping the Iraqis restore their infrastructure, reform their economy, and build the prosperity that will give all Iraqis a stake in a free and peaceful Iraq. On the security side, coalition and Iraqi forces are on the offense against the enemy."

"Shia and Kurds, . . . face daily attacks from the terrorists and Saddamists."

" . . . a party leader reports that at least 10 members have been killed since the party announced it would field candidates in Thursday's elections."

"30,000 (Iraqis), more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis."he said today, "We've lost about 2,140 of our own troops in Iraq."

Behind Bush's blustering and bravado this month is an admissive tone that speaks of difficulties there as if we just engaged them yesterday instead of years ago when planning and thoughtfulness were the casualty of his rush to invade and occupy. Water and electricity? Security? Casualties? All mere mindless afterthoughts in Bush's manufactured mandate to conquer.

There is something else behind his rhetoric that should give pause to those who would be satisfied by Bush's words that he is determined to leave Iraq. His strident talk about terrorists in Iraq and his determination to stay until we defeat them.

" . . . it's hard." he said today. "It's hard for a country that has come from dictatorship two-and-a-half years ago to become a democracy. It is hard work. There's a lot of resentment and anger and bitterness. But I believe it's going to happen. And the only way it won't happen is if we leave, if we lose our nerve, if we allow the terrorists to achieve their objective.

That rhetoric belies all of the talk from his surrogates about plans to exit Iraq. They won't budge without more pressure from the outside. They'll likely just declare 'victory' and stay, this time with less troops to do the job that the larger force struggled to maintain. ". . . our coalition will continue to hunt down the terrorists and Saddamists." Bush said.

Our aggressive posture there has alienated any fringe of moderates that could have helped bring parties together in Iraq. We support one side now with our military, those opposed either resign themselves to our junta or they are driven to violent expressions of nationalism which our false authority disregards as threats to our consolidation of power and influence. Worse, Bush still links Iraq to al-Qaeda and bin-Laden. " . . . bin Laden and al-Qaida," he said today, "are the direct cause of the Iraqi people’s suffering."

Bush can't win for his losing, and the Iraqi people, along with our misguided soldiers, continue to suffer as Bush struggles to achieve 'victory' over his own incompetent meddling. No remorse from this man who can't face the coffins, who can't face the families of the dead he has fostered with his manufactured war. Let's hope we can cast this megalomaniac aside and begin to rebuild our country, our reputation, our democracy, so that we can return to our role as a peaceful nation which enjoyed decades of firm understandings about an America power which was to be guileless in its unassailable defenses.

Total victory will come when we put an end to Bush's mindless expansionism, sly justifications for attacks on our civil liberties; demagogic appeals to patriotism and to our nationalism; the deliberate inflaming, and careful stoking of the sparks of fear that flashed from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center; and the mortgaging of ours and our children's future toil and tribute to the subsidizing of both of the Bush president's bloody and costly wars of opportunity.