Bush grasping at straws
Yesterday I listened to Jim Lehrer’s one on one interview with President Bush. I was simply amazed at the President’s answers. You can listen to an audio transcript and see a text transcript here. Despite my revulsion at Bush’s Iraq policy, I’ve always felt that Bush is a pretty gifted politician. He has always had a real skill connecting with regular people. Also, his unwillingness to waver in the face of overwhelming opposition is interpreted by many as a positive trait. At least he sticks to his guns, right? Well, that may be appropriate for a sheriff in the wild west. It doesn’t work for complex foreign policy issues. I accept that Bush has certainly thought a lot about Iraq. What is tragic is that his answers seem to reflect a jingoistic oversimplistic view of the situation. He may have a deeper understanding of it. However, this interview gave me the impression of a man who is grasping at straws trying to gain any traction on a rapidly sinking policy proposal.
Here Bush is asked about recent deaths in Iraq:
MR. LEHRER: Just today, another 35 people were killed in bombings; 80 over the weekend.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah, there is a difference between – look, death is terrible – but remember, some of these bombings are done by al-Qaida and their affiliates, all trying to create doubt and concern and create these death squads or encourage these death squads to roam neighborhoods….
It amazed me that Bush continues to link the specter of Al Qaeda to the current situation in Iraq. While I agree that Al Qaeda is a factor in the country, from what I’ve seen recently the bulk of the killing is a result of sectarian conflict. Even if we got rid of Al Qaeda in Iraq, we’d still have an enormous mess on our hands. Bush once again plays to the fears of Americans by portraying this as a fight against Al Qaeda. It’s the same strategy he used in the 2004 presidential campaign even after it had been proved that no link existed by between Al Qaeda and 9/11. What’s sad is that this fear rhetoric continues today.
It seems that the typical response these days from the Bush administration to criticism of its Iraq plan is to emphasize how high the stake are. Bush says:
Failure – and this is what is hard, I think, for the American people to understand and one of the reasons why I appreciate talking to you is that people have got to understand that if we fail in Iraq, it is likely there will be safe haven from which people will be able to launch attacks from America. It is likely there would be enormous clashes between radical Shia and radical Sunnis. It is likely that moderate governments could be toppled, in which case, people could get a hold of oil resources. You mix all that with an Iran with a nuclear weapon and we’re looking at a generation of Americans threatened. And so therefore, we’ve got to get it – we’ve got to succeed.
We all agree that the stakes are incredibly high. However, simply saying that we cannot fail cannot will us to victory. In fact, if you consider Bush’s goal of a stable and secure Iraq, most would agree that this is highly unlikely in the near term. As I’ve said before it’s time to accept a strategy that leads us to the least damaging of the possible bad outcomes. Bush, however, still seems to be imagining a US “victory” which few believe will come.
Finally, Bush resorts to the standard administration talking point of calling on critics to present their alternative plan:
And my only call to Congress is that if you’ve got a better way to succeed, step up and explain it. I fully understand your skepticism, I say to them, but if you share with me the concern that failure’s not an option, then what is – what’s your – what’s your prescription for success? And I think they owe that explanation to the American people.
There have been plenty of alternative proposals out there. Biden has proposed a partition plan. The Iraq Study Group has proposed what I consider to be the most realistic plan. These plans are out there. Bush has simply decided to ignore them. Now that a bipartisan plan has been proposed, the onus is on the President to prove to the American public that his plan, which the polls tell us has little broad support, is truly the better option. Unfortunately, all we hear from the President is how high the stakes are, how we can’t affort to lose, and that an escalation strategy that has already been tried will somehow magically solve this problem. The problem is political. It’s tragic that Bush still feels that it can be solved through military means.
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