"President's speech on Iraq strategy conjures a dreamworld"

Village Voice
http://villagevoice.com/news/0549,ridgeway,70575,2.html

George Bush, Meet Reality
President's speech on Iraq strategy conjures a dreamworld

by James Ridgeway
November 30th, 2005 1:27 PM

WASHINGTON, D.C.--President Bush’s speech this morning at the Naval Academy is a reflection of his stubborn, narrow-vision approach to governing. More and more, what he says is devoid of reality. To listen to Bush is to enter a dreamworld.

Faced with incontrovertible facts of increasing costs ($6 billion a month), soldier deaths day after day(2,100), growing disenchantment in Congress (The Senate is demanding periodic reports on how the war is faring), the failure of the Iraqi security forces to protect the country,all signs of a coming defeat, he keeps on keeping on with pledges of total victory. He won’t set "artificial deadlines" for withdrawal. "No war has ever been won on a timetable - and neither will this one," the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq says.

"These decisions about troop levels will be driven by the conditions on the ground in Iraq and the good judgment of our commanders, not by artificial timetables set by politicians in Washington," Bush said in his followup address.

Bush's swaggering style reinforces his image and that of the country of being a bully and, worse, a loser.

"America will not run in the face of car bombers and assassins so long as I am your commander-in-chief," says Bush, the man who squirmed his way out of Vietnam duty.

can you imagine anyone who has watched bush since he took office giving him more time to succeed in Iraq? can you really?

surely they realize how inept he is ... no one in the Democratic Party could possibly fail to see that ... surely they understand that he has no intention of winding down the war or the US military presence in Iraq ...

perhaps there will be some troop reductions to pacify the opposition ... but these will be politically motivated ... these reductions will not be a process towards getting us out of Iraq; not by a long shot ...

but our Senate Democrats are playing politics with the issue ... they have to show us that they are not like those anti-war Vietnam era hippies ... they are "tough on defense and responsible as hell" ...

of course, they can't just go along with bush either ... so they've mapped out the perfect down-the-middle wishy-washy strategy ... yup, let's not stay forever but let's not leave right away either ... don't worry about what the Iraqi people want; don't worry about what the American people want ... we need to show America we're tough ... that's the main thing we need to do ... so let's pick some sort of totally arbitrary middle ground ... how about a year? bush is totally inept and refuses to give us a plan so a year sounds just about perfect ...

someone should take the time to explain why Senate Dems trust bush running this war for another year or more ... with an "out now" plan, the Democrats could have brought the pressure of the American people down on bush; this middle of the road garbage put the nation back to sleep when Murtha gave us a chance to rally the energies of the American people ... great leadership there ... the loss of this opportunity was tragic ...

and way too many ignorant American people.

Nothing's going to change in Iraq until we get Regime Change at home!

that it's possible.

when the shit finally hits the fan.

i think it already has, but he's too dumb to know it.

I agree.