BUSH AND IRAQ….Ah yes, our rock jawed president in the fight against terror. Willing to bear any burden, pay any price:
Some military officers are also concerned that Washington is now cutting back on its original goal of eliminating major flash points in Iraq before June 30. They say the United States has basically retreated in Fallujah, handing over control of the Sunni city to a former Iraqi general who is now commanding some of the very insurgents U.S. forces were fighting — again, in the name of expediency.
“What we’re trying to do is extricate ourselves from Fallujah,” said a senior U.S. official familiar with U.S. strategy who would speak only on the condition of anonymity. “There’s overwhelming pressure with the Coalition Provisional Authority and the White House to deliver a successful Iraq transition, and Iraq is proving uncooperative.”
This is via Andrew Sullivan, who asks, “is the president telling the truth or is the anonymous ‘senior administration official’?”
I wonder how much more of this it takes before people like Sullivan stop asking this question and see the obvious answer. Sure, other things equal, Bush would like to win the war, but his every action for the past year has shown that he’s not willing to risk reelection to do it. He got talked into the neocon dreamland in which Iraq would be a quick and easy war, and now he just wants a face-saving ? and job saving ? way of getting out.
Aside from lots of pretty speeches, I can’t think of a single action he’s taken in the past 12 months that indicates any real seriousness about winning in Iraq. Anybody out there care to suggest anything?
