In the movie "Planes, Trains & Automobiles," John Candy and Steve Martin are driving down the wrong way on a one way. Some people spot them on the other side of the highway and start yelling to them, "You're going the wrong way!!!"
Steve Martin looks concerned, but John Candy reassures him, "How would they know which way we're going?" They drive straight ahead and get crushed by two 18 wheelers.
Iraq experts and administration critics are the drivers on the other side of the highway screaming the warning signs. Steve Martin is the American people. And John Candy is George W. Bush.
This president is supremely confident that he is headed in the right direction as he barrels down the wrong way towards near certain destruction. He says we will have "complete victory" in Iraq.
Come on, how does anyone take this guy seriously? What the hell does complete victory mean? Does that mean we have to stay in Iraq until every Shiite, Sunni and Kurd stop fighting each other? This is madness.
Then it gets worse. Bush this week continued to talk about fighting the terrorists in Iraq. How does the press let him get away with this nonsense? Who are the terrorists - the Sunnis who use car bombs or the Shiites who have death squads?
At one point, he called the enemy - Islamo-fascists. What the hell is that? If Bush really believes that's who we are fighting in Iraq, somebody please impeach him before any more of our kids get killed following this complete imbecile.
Of course, the administration must know that the real fight in Iraq isn't between us and the evil-doer terrorists (who are a tiny part of the insurgency). The real battle is between the different ethnic groups in Iraq. So, when Bush goes on these long nonsensical diatribes about how we are going to defeat the terrorists in Iraq, I keep waiting for someone in the press crops to ask the President if he is purposely trying to mislead the American people or if he has no idea what the hell is going on in Iraq.
I want someone to stand up and tell him, "You're fighting the wrong war!!!"
I'm sure he'd drive straight ahead nonetheless, but someone should warn the poor schmuck that he sounds completely out of touch. This President risks becoming irrelevant if he doesn't start making sense soon.
The issue isn't terrorists anymore in Iraq. And that is somewhat fitting since it wasn't terrorists that got us into Iraq in the first place (since Iraq had no connection whatsoever to al-Qaeda). The issue is how we extricate ourselves from Iraq while leaving some semblance of stability.
I am of the opinion that whether we admit it now or many painful years later, we are going to have to split up Iraq. But there are many different and interesting ideas about how to achieve a balance of power in Iraq between the different ethnic groups. None of those ideas involve complete victory over Islamo-fascists.
If this administration doesn't join the real world on the issues facing Iraq, I don't know what choices we have. I really don't know whether George Bush is scared to face the real problems in Iraq and is therefore actively lying to the American people or if he has no grasp of what is actually happening in the country he invaded and is presently occupying. But either way, he has to join the reality-based world or step aside. We cannot have a man who has no idea what's going on in the world leading this country for another three years.
Shouldn't we be concerned that our President seems to exhibit no understanding of the largest issue of his presidency?
Islamo-fascists? On what planet is that the real problem in Iraq? We're going the wrong way and if we don't change direction or leadership soon, we've got a date with two tractor trailers. Somebody please grab the wheel.