A nation listened with folded arms

[babylonsister]

A nation listened with folded arms


A testy exchange between President Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reported in The New York Times captures a national mood.

In advance of his speech to the nation Thursday night, Bush met with Democratic leaders to explain how he was reducing troop strength in Iraq. Pelosi interrupted to say he was doing no such thing. A temporarily inflated number being dropped back to old troop levels yielded a phony reduction. The president is no longer the best salesman for his own administration, which is why Gen. David Petraeus was drafted. He worked Capitol Hill and every other venue with a microphone before the chief executive spoke from the Oval Office.

The general and Ambassador Ryan Crocker provided cover for a speech that telegraphed no real change at all.

More and more, the president sounds like he has decided to play out the clock. After American troop levels surged to 160,000 over the past nine months, the number will be reduced to 130,000 by next summer. Petraeus was already committed to bringing several brigades home to meet a promise to limit tours of duty to 15 months.

Weary and wary Americans listening to their president are parsing out the rhetoric and vocabulary of presidential reports. Notice how the word victory is replaced by success, which is not defined.

The nation's doubts and questions are getting sharper. If the troop surge accounted for positive changes, why is the president proposing to reduce those levels? How will things change with the surge ending? As the White House hails success in Anbar province, how is the central government in Baghdad helping to assure political and military stability?

more...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2003883485_bushed14.html

[Felinity]

1. Wasn't the surge a deception from the get-go

If it succeeded, wouldn't we want to continue on that path, ie maintain the surge?

If it failed, we would ?? Bring our troops home? I doubt it. Institute a draft and send more troops in?

It was an outright lie to begin with. :mad:

[bemildred]

2. "More and more, the president sounds like he has decided to play out the clock."

Unless he decides to bomb Iran.

[frogcycle]

3. more media finally coming around

I notice that C Matthews has finally come out solidly in the "he's a lying sack of crap" camp. He was particularly incensed about bush's having put crocker and Petraeus in the position of "selling" his ill-fated "vision." He pointed out that you could see that neither of them believed in what they were saying, said they only did it because they were"ordered" to. I am not sure I can be that charitable toward them, but my point is that Matthews seems to have taken a look at Olbermann's ratings and the polls and decided to call bush what he is. A lot of the media is doing the same. Sadly, they follow rather than lead, but maybe, just maybe, the groundswell will influence that last handful of repub senators necessary to stop this thing. Or give the house leadership the guts to just say no. I'll take either one. Whichever happens - no more funding or funding with mandatory change, we have to force bush to respond to pressure - because he is incapable of doing so, and will in all likelihood commit that overt act of defiance that will finally be his undoing, get him and his administration carted off to the booby hatch.

[BridgeTheGap]

4. Bush & co have to continue this deception as they've pegged

the entire war on terrorism's "success" to what happens in Iraq.
The sad truth is (and the military damned well knows it) that you can not militarily defeat an insurgency when 60% of the population supports it. So they hype this being the main front in the "war on terrorism" because that was the starting point and justification for going into Iraq - i.e. Iraq "did" 9/11 AND they have WMD. Both have been disproven but the neo-cons have to continue the deception (this is the "front" in the war on terror) to play out their hand. Of course, playing out their hand also includes attacking Iran.
This CONTINUED deception has to confronted head-on and that can only be done through impeachment.
The war in Iraq can be ended by cutting off funds but this alone, will not stop the neo-con agenda.