Communicator in Chief Keeps the Focus on Iraq Positive(but success not def

[papau]

http://nytimes.com/2005/01/27/politics/27spin.html?hp&ex=1106888400&en=e78a5fd639e686c9&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Communicator in Chief Keeps the Focus on Iraq Positive
By ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: January 27, 2005


ASHINGTON, Jan. 26 - President Bush's opening statement at his news conference on Wednesday was striking for what it left out: any mention of the 31 Americans who died overnight in the crash of a Marine helicopter in Iraq, the largest number of American deaths in a single incident since the war began.


<snip>President Bush's opening statement at his news conference on Wednesday was striking for what it left out: any mention of the 31 Americans who died overnight in the crash of a Marine helicopter in Iraq, the largest number of American deaths in a single incident since the war began.

<snip>Mr. Bush instead focused on his long-term goal of 'ending tyranny in our world,' and then cast the Iraqi election coming Sunday as part of a march of freedom around the globe. He said that if he had told the reporters in the room a few years before that the Iraqi people would be voting, 'you would look at me like some of you still look at me, with a kind of blank expression.'

<snip>The president's words were part of an aggressive White House communications strategy this week and next to frame the risky Iraqi election -- a critical test of his assertion that the country is on the path to stability -- in the best possible light. The goal, a Bush adviser said, was not only to lower expectations but to avoid any definition of success.<snip>

[EVDebs]

1. Yes, just slap a 'happy face' on and ignore the obvious !

Actual quote in today's paper "It would completely destabilize the country (Iraq) if we pull the troops out....What we need is to send a message to the terrorists that we are not going to quit so they ought to." John Feehery, spokeman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL.

Um, didn't PUTTING the troops there in the first place accomplish that ? And as far as mollifying "terrorists" these insurgents are now mostly home-grown Iraqis, according to former DIA officer Patrick Lang, and not mainly foreigners on jihad as Fox News reports.

What's wrong with leaving Iraq to its own devices and civil war for a few years ? The oil surely isn't going to run away somewhere. And Bush's exit strategy should have been obvious BEFORE a war was started.

Bush's exit strategy was WISHFUL THINKING. That is clearly not what Congress requires in the War Powers Act of 1973 reqarding valid circumstances in order to go to war in the first place, and what the Powell Doctrine spelled out !

[whistle]

2. All of this will be academic after Sunday January 30, 2005....

...when Iraq voters make their choices at the ballot box and the aftermath of the voting unfolds before our leaders eyes. I do pray that Iraq becomes independent and that our troops (U.S. and allies alike) can return home safely and quickly. The administration's actions and rhetoric suggest a different outcome however, and I am far more pessimistic of what the results of Bush's policies and cover-ups are likely to produce in the way of peace in Iraq and throughout the middle-east as well as around the world.

I put far greater faith in God's direction than I do in Bush's leadership and visions! Afterall, the story of the Prodical son suggests, "...The Prodigal Son, on the other hand, returns home only in order to remain the child of his father, an eternal infant, exempt from the Reality Principle and his responsibilities, thanks to the labor of his elder brother, and to whom is promised the kingdom of heaven, because he was not able to live in this world."

Contrast that to, "...the puberty rites of savages and from the tale of Pinocchio, children can become themselves adults, fathers, and kings only through a long and demanding process of identification with their fathers." and I might add maturation through trail and error and trial again.

<more at>

Pinocchio: The Puberty Rite of a Puppet

by Iakov Levi

The Tale of Pinocchio and the Puberty rites of Savages

<link> http://www.academyanalyticarts.org/levi.htm