A failed attempt to sell a failed policy on a failed war

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A failed attempt to sell a failed policy on a failed war

By DOUG THOMPSON

Dec 1, 2005, 07:14

 

 

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The dwindling numbers of those who continue to support, without

question, George W. Bush's failed policies in Iraq didn't get much to

support their cause when the President delivered what the White House

promised would be a " major policy speech. "

 

The speech, offered to a carefully-selected audience of Naval Academy

midshipmen at Annapolis, gave us nothing new and offered one more

glimpse of Bush's inability to grasp reality.

 

Either Bush is purposely lying when he claims progress in training

Iraqis to handle their own security or he is just too damn dumb to

realize how bad things are in the country he invaded two-and-a-half

years ago.

 

Even worse, he apparently learned nothing from the botched photo op

aboard an aircraft carrier in 2003 where he stood before that

ridiculous " Mission Accomplished " banner and declared victory in Iraq.

 

Wednesday, more than two years later, he stood before another banner,

this one claiming " A Plan for Victory, " and cited progress that

doesn't exist and promised a victory that the many pros in the

Pentagon tell him is unattainable.

 

Bush claimed Iraq's security forces are assuming more and more

responsibility for security in the troubled nation. What security?

Every day brings more death and destruction from insurgents who bomb

at will and add to the mounting death tolls. Members of Iraq's

security forces – often the target of insurgents – complain they must

pay for their own uniforms and weapons and say the insurgents are far

better armed than they.

 

All Bush did was feed " the very ethnic and sectarian tensions that

could well lead to civil war, " says Wayne White, former deputy

director of intelligence and research for the Near East at the State

Department,

 

Even members of Bush's own party question the honesty of the

President's rosy view of how things are going in his failed war.

 

" We need some discussion of whether Iraqis want to be Iraqis, whether

there is in fact sufficient cohesion among all the groups to prevent a

civil war, " said Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the

Foreign Relations Committee, after the speech. Lugar added that

Congress needs to be consulted " if, in fact, we are going to have

sustained support through what could be a fairly long period. "

 

Newspapers found little to support in Bush's speech.

 

" Americans have great cause for distrust, " The San Jose Mercury-News

editorialized in today's editions. " The administration has deceived

Americans about the reasons for, and progress of, the war. Two years

ago, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

assured Americans over and over that the insurgents were in their last

throes. That wasn't true then, and it's not true now. "

 

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released after the speech Wednesday shows

55 percent of Americans do not believe Bush's plan will achieve

victory. Those who doubt polls that show Bush in a bad light will

point out that only 10 percent of those polled watched the speech live

but that, in itself, is an indicator of how little Americans trust

Bush and how unwilling they are to listen to anything he has to say.

The polls also put Bush's approval rating at just 37 percent – a 51

point drop.

 

" If the president's goal in kicking off a series of speeches detailing

his Iraq policy was to rebuild support for the war, he missed his

moment, " editorialized USA Today in today's editions. " In doing so, he

threw into sharper relief the long-running disconnect between his rosy

perceptions and what's attainable. Bush's narrative seemed at times

more plucked from a black-and-white fantasy than the more complex

reality. "

 

In the end, Bush's " major policy address " was either a recycling of

lies by a politician who is incapable of honesty with the American

people or the ravings of a stubborn, intellectually-challenged

President in over his head.

 

Hell of a choice.

 

© Copyright 2005 by Capitol Hill Blue

 

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Pentagon, intel pros tell Bush war cannot be won

By DOUG THOMPSON

Nov 30, 2005, 06:42

 

 

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While President George W. Bush tells the American people that U.S.

troops must stay in Iraq until they have " achieved victory, " Pentagon

planners and intelligence professionals tell the White House the war

cannot be won.

 

" The President's speech tonight will be a con-job, " says a senior

Pentagon analyst who asked not to be identified. " He will be

attempting to sell a strategy that is not achievable and one that is

not backed by the professionals who tell him otherwise. "

 

In fact, experts say Bush can no longer rally Americans to support his

failed far in Iraq.

 

" The American people have turned against the war, and they're not

turning back, " said political analyst Larry Sabato of the University

of Virginia. " The public is no longer with the President on this issue. "

 

But opposition to the President's policies also grows in the private

corridors of the Pentagon and in the intelligence community where

professionals in the art of waging war say the battle for Iraq is lost.

 

" It's over, " says a longtime analyst for the Central Intelligence

Agency. " It's been over since we declared a victory we didn't achieve

and claimed to have accomplished a mission that was unfinished. "

 

Bitterness grows within the military and intelligence establishment

over Bush's unwillingness to listen to reason on Iraq. Analysts called

to the White House to provide intelligence briefings on the situation

in Iraq dread the trip to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue where an honest

assessment of the war brings anger and sharp rebukes from a President

who doesn't like to hear bad news.

 

" It's a no-win situation, " says one longtime Pentagon operative. " If

we provide an honest assessment of the situation the President blows

his stack. He ignores our recommendations and then blames us when

things go wrong. "

 

A record number of senior officials at both the Pentagon and CIA have

left in recent months, saying they are unable to deal with what they

call " the imperial Presidency of George W. Bush. "

 

Republicans also grow increasingly nervous over Bush's stubbornness on

Iraq and know the growing public opposition to the war is killing them

politically.

 

" If elections for Congress were being held next Tuesday, Republicans

would lose both houses. The GOP knows it, " says Sabato.

 

Other feel opposition to the war will continue to grow and, with it,

increased demands that the U.S. withdraw..

 

" No matter how the questions are phrased, all the polls have logged

increases in pro-withdrawal sentiment over the course of the war, "

says John Mueller, an expert on war and public opinion, based at Ohio

State University. And that sentiment is inextricably linked to the

growing belief that the war itself has been a mistake. "

 

That belief the war itself has been a mistake is one shared by a

growing number of those whose job it is to wage war – the pros at the

Pentagon and in the intelligence community and the same pros that

George W. Bush ignored in his headlong march into a losing war in Iraq.

 

© Copyright 2005 by Capitol Hill Blue

 

Who is this <http://www.capitolhillblue.com/dtbio.asp>Thompson guy anyway?