Bush Upbeat as Iraq Burns

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/24/opinion/24herbert.html

 

September 24, 2004

OP-ED COLUMNIST

 

 

Bush Upbeat as Iraq Burns

By BOB HERBERT

 

George W. Bush was a supporter of the war in Vietnam. For a while.

 

As he explained in his autobiography, " A Charge to Keep: My Journey to

the White House " :

 

" My inclination was to support the government and the war until proven

wrong, and that only came later, as I realized we could not explain

the mission, had no exit strategy, and did not seem to be fighting to

win. "

 

How is it that he ultimately came to see the fiasco in Vietnam so

clearly but remains so blind to the frighteningly similar realities of

his own war in Iraq? Mr. Bush cannot explain our mission in Iraq and

has nothing resembling an exit strategy, and his troops - hobbled by

shortages of personnel and by potentially fatal American and Iraqi

political considerations - are certainly not fighting to win.

 

As the situation in Iraq moves from bad to worse, the president, based

on his public comments, seems to be edging further and further from

reality. This is disturbing, to say the least. The news from Iraq is

filled with reports of kidnappings and beheadings, of people pleading

desperately for their lives, of American soldiers being ambushed and

killed, of clusters of Iraqis being blown to pieces by suicide

bombers, and of the prospects for a credible election in January

tumbling toward nil.

 

The war effort has deteriorated so drastically that the administration

is planning to take more than $3 billion earmarked for crucial

reconstruction projects and shift them to security programs designed

to ward off the increasingly deadly insurgency. A classified National

Intelligence Estimate prepared for the president contained no really

good prospects for Iraq. The best-case scenario was a country with

only tenuous stability. The worst potential outcome was civil war.

 

The intelligence estimate was prepared in July, and the situation has

only worsened since then.

 

Even Republicans are starting to voice their concerns about the

unfolding disaster. When asked on CBS's " Face the Nation " whether the

U.S. was winning the war in Iraq, Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska

Republican, said, " No, I don't think we're winning. " He said the U.S.

was " in deep trouble in Iraq " and that some " recalibration of policy "

would be necessary to turn things around.

 

Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican, said on " Fox News

Sunday " : " The situation has obviously been somewhat deteriorating, to

say the least. " He said " serious mistakes " have been made and that

most of them " can be traced back to not having sufficient numbers of

troops there. "

 

These are not doves talking. These are supporters of President Bush

who support the war in Iraq and believe it can be won. But they're

also in touch with reality.

 

President Bush does not share their sense of alarm. He acknowledged

that " horrible scenes " are being shown on television and the Internet,

but he was unmoved by the gloomy intelligence estimates. According to

Mr. Bush: " The C.I.A. laid out several scenarios. It said that life

could be lousy, life could be O.K., life could be better. "

 

Que sera, sera.

 

The president said he is personally optimistic and he delivered an

upbeat assessment of conditions in Iraq to the U.N. General Assembly

on Tuesday. Iraq, he said, is well on its way to being " secure,

democratic, federal and free. "

 

If you spend more than a little time immersed in the world according

to Karl Rove, you'll find that words lose even the remotest connection

to reality. They become nothing more than tools designed to achieve

political ends. So it's not easy to decipher what the president

believes about Iraq.

 

This is scary. With Americans, Iraqis and others dying horribly in the

long dark night of this American-led war, the world needs more from

the president of the United States than the fool's gold of his empty

utterances.

 

Perhaps someone can dislodge the president from Karl's clutches, shake

him and tell him that his war is a tremendous tragedy with

implications far beyond the election in November.

 

At the moment there is no evidence the president understands anything

about the war. He led the nation into it with false pretenses. He

never mobilized sufficient numbers of troops. He seemed to believe the

war was over in May 2003. And he seems not to know how to proceed now.

 

The tragic lesson of Vietnam is staring the president in the face. But

he'll have to become better acquainted with the real world before he

can even begin to learn from it.

 

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