Bush Iraq Victory Plan

The gap between the leader we have and the leader we need becomes more apparent every day. President Bush’s prepared remarks on the “National Strategy for Victory In Iraq” only served to further expose this gap.

The handwriting is on the wall. Regardless of what President Bush says (in typical “never admit a mistake” style) he will have no choice but to get out of Iraq soon. The impending ‘06 elections aside, if he were to continue on this course much longer, his public support would be so low as to bury any chance of domestic or foreign policy achievement in his second term. Not to mention would put the GOP so far underwater in ‘08 that they could also risk losing one or both house of Congress that year—now that would be a great legacy!

He will need to withdraw from Iraq. And he will—all the while claiming victory as he flees from a devastated Iraq that he has turned into a breeding ground for terrorism and anti- American sentiment.

But how will he maneuver this about-face?

He will claim that his own meaningless and artificial benchmark– that Iraqi forces are now able to take over the defense of Iraq – has been met, whether it has or not. Look for this to happen sometime between August and October of 2006. Presto-chango—he will cite his own contrived facts much as he did in Wednesday’s speech (See “Fact Checking the President” by Dan Froomkin) as proof he was right all along to “ stay the course” and Democrats who called to “cut and run” were wrong. Perhaps he can even cite Iraqi press reports to buttress his claims. And his victory will be as fictional as are those news reports.

The speech was just smoke and mirrors. Much like his presidency.

The only line missing from his speech was, “ I‘m not really the leader of the free-world, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night.”