So in his continuing chronic state of cognitive dissonance, George Bush pulled his head out of the sand just long enough to parrot some classics from the “distract them with fear and terrorism before the mid-term election” phrasebook. From his press conference on October 25th, 2006:
A defeat [in Iraq] — in other words, if we were to withdraw before the job is done, it would embolden extremists. They would say, you know, we were right about America in the first place, that America did not have the will necessary to do the hard work. That’s precisely what Osama bin Laden has said, for example. A defeat there would make it easier for people to be able to recruit extremists and kids, to be able to use their tactics to destroy innocent life. A defeat there would dispirit people throughout the Middle East who wonder whether America is genuine in our commitment to moderation and democracy.
I’m sorry to tell you, Mr. President, but people are already dispirited in the world. Iraq now makes it very easy for extremists to recruit. Most of us feel significantly less safe now than we did immediately after 9/11. So how exactly are we supposed to win? What does this win look like?
By many accounts his description describes a dream that is the exact opposite from the reality on the ground. Our very presence in Iraq emboldens the terrorists and forces many to question whether we are for moderation and democracy. Further, while there might have been groups of outside fighters that the Bush Administration could refer to as “outside terrorists”, it now appears that the U.S. is battling substantial Iraqi sects, each with their own 2000-year-old agendas. His dream for Iraq assumes we can just roust out those troublemakers from Iraq, and when we do, we’ll come home. Alas, it’s quite unlikely that we’ll roust Iraqis from Iraq.
Unfortunately, the situation in Iraq plays exactly to a key Bush weakness: To Bush, there is no nuance, no complexity.
History is already being written and in the end, I believe, George W. Bush will be remembered as a vapid, inept executive who set our nation back decades. If you want to watch chapter one of this history, you need to watch the chilling documentary from Frontline, The Lost Year in Iraq. These guys have been wrong about every strategy they’ve taken…and yet some would consider still listening to him and his cronies?