Bushs Final Exam
January 8th, 2007 by PerryPresident Bush has a major speech to make this week on Iraq, one that will undoubtedly overshadow his State of the Union speech several weeks later. The President will unveil his strategy, which is expected to entail new political, military and economic steps to win the war.
There is strong indication that he will call for a surge or escalation of at least 20K more troops in Iraq.
Look at the changes made or to be made:
Militarily, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has been replaced by Robert Gates.
Moreover, Generals Casey and Abizaid, both of whom have been opposed to an increase in troop numbers, have been replaced by General Petraeus and Admiral Fallon as Iraqi Field Commander and Central Military Commander (Iran and Afghanistan) respectively. The latter are both proponents for the escalation of our war efforts in Iraq.
Politically, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is now saying that he is willing to suppress any illegal militia activity, regardless of the sectarian origin. Is this to include Shi’ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr? He is now willing to consider benchmarks. Did I say benchmarks?
Diplomatically, Director of Intelligence John Negroponte is being moved to the State Department next in line under Rice. Negroponte will be replaced by retired Admiral Mike McConnell, an experienced military intelligence officer. Also, US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad is being named US Ambassador to the UN replacing John Bolton. Khalilzad will be replaced by Ryan Crocker, experienced diplomat currently US Envoy to Pakistan.
Economically, Bush plans to earmark more funds for infrastructure reconstruction efforts.
Thus Bush continues to emphasize a military solution to his Iraq quagmire, a strategy that has already failed, and that the American people, in my view, will be most skeptical, mirroring the heavy anti-Bush Iraq War statement made in the election in which Bush took a “thumping”.
The President has to show in his speech that suddenly he has become competent and that there is yet hope.
This time there will be much needed Congressional oversight. Cherrypicking will no longer work. Propaganda will be minimized. The truth will be forced out.
There will be no place in his speech for his incessant cheerleading. Substance now really matters. This will be his biggest sales job ever, since he has to leap over his history of failures with a presentation based on substance, not fluff.
Let us hear what he has to say, on Wednesday. I for one will be listening very intently!
January 11th, 2007 at 9:59 am
President Bush has come up with a plan that has one feature that is good: The onus is now on Maliki and his government to put up or we draw our forces down. In other words, this is an exit strategy, for a change. And Maliki has less than a year to demonstrate that his people can begin to provide their own security.
This then is a political solution pressured by additional US military help to create the conditions for it.
Bush’s problem is that it may be too little to late. Too late, because the insurgency has magnified so much in the last year. Too late, because the American people are past tired at seeing no significent positive results following the downfall of Saddam. Too late because of the terrible things like torture, rendering, and unlawful detaining of captives over the almost four year period.
Moreover, Bush’s plan did not involve new diplomatic initiatives with Iran and Syria, key players in the region.
The political climate for support of this “escalation” does not appear to be present here either, though we must wait to see the polls.
The National Guard, which has furnished almost 50% of the combat troops, will be called on once more to step forward. The push back of their families, as in this mornings front page News-Journal article, will also be a factor for the Bush people to reckon with.
Thus Bush has chosen a risky policy to put forward. It will happen, because the Congress, Dems and GOP alike, do not have the will or the power to stop him; therefore we will have to see what happens in Iraq in 2007 with this latest Bush initiative put into place.
The tragedy of this Bush Iraq War will therefore continue, in terms of violence and lost lives, as Bush himself warned in his speech. I wonder whether we will ever recover from this; if so, it is going to take many decades, during which global warming might overtake us all anyway.
What a grim picture of the future; but then, is this the reality we face. We must act now to help get our globe on track!!!
January 12th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Yes, Perry it is a grim picture; this war, Delaware under water in 93 years, The Atkins incident and Rte 1 Expansion. That is why I’m for allowing smoking again in restaurants and bars, not only allowing it, but encouraging it and expanding it to hospitals, schools, nursing homes, even to churches, temples and mosques.