As visual metaphors go, it was a lavishly gilded lily of an image, a
hanging curveball across the plate, a George Tenet-style slam-dunk: A
weary President Bush, trying to escape a news conference in Beijing on
Sunday, strides away from the microphone to a pair of locked doors,
which he pulls and tugs in vain. No exit , the image screamed. No way out.
Of course, George Bush will inevitably get out of the mess he has made
-- he leaves office in three years and two months, not that anyone's
counting. But the rest of us will be left with his handiwork: crushing
national debt, rising economic inequality, a poisoned political
atmosphere and, oh, yes, the war in Iraq. We're the ones trapped in the
dark with no exit sign in sight.
The administration is losing the public debate because of its many
missteps and failures, but also because of its insistence on conflating
the war in Iraq with the larger "war on terror." Does anyone understand
what "war on terror" means? The country was attacked by a murderous
association of Islamic fundamentalists led by Osama bin Laden. Last we
heard, he was still alive and well, probably in some cave in
northwestern Pakistan. That's a long way from Iraq.
The
president says that Iraq is a test of our nation's resolve, that
anything less than victory will confirm the enemy's view that America
lacks the stomach for a fight. But "stay the course" doesn't play as a
strategy when the course seems to lead nowhere. What is victory in
Iraq? When will we know we've won? When the simmering, low-level civil
war we've ignited sparks into full flame and somebody takes over the
country? When a new government in Baghdad declares its eternal
brotherhood and friendship with Tehran?
The mess that George
Bush and Co. have created in Iraq doesn't have an unmessy solution.
Murtha's plan -- just get out -- isn't really attractive, but at least
it's a plan. The saying goes that when you're in a hole, the first
thing to do is to stop digging. But the president, like the optimistic
kid in the old joke, just keeps burrowing deeper into the pile of
manure, even though by now we can be pretty sure that there's no pony
down there.
UPDATE 1: Iraqi
leaders want US out of Iraq and call for a timetable for the withdrawal
of all foreign troops. Why do Iraqi leaders hate Iraq? Those darn
Iraqi leaders! Looks like
they have aligned themselves with the likes of Murtha, Michael Moore,
Moveon.org and 57% of America. Let's teach them a lesson and bomb the
crap out of their country...
Uh... wait... didn't we already do that?
When
the party's over and the hosts ask you to leave, only a fool would ask
for more dip and chips. Bush wants them to tap another keg, turn up the
music and piss off the neighborhood. This party needs a bouncer.
President
Bush feels betrayed by several of his most senior aides and advisors
and has severely restricted access to the Oval Office, administration
sources say. The president's reclusiveness in the face of relentless
public scrutiny of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and White House leaks
regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame has become so extreme that Mr.
Bush has also reduced contact with his father, former President George
H.W. Bush, administration sources said on the condition of anonymity.
"The
sources said Mr. Bush maintains daily contact with only four people:
first lady Laura Bush, his mother, Barbara Bush, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes. The sources also say that Mr. Bush has stopped talking with his father, except on family occasions."
I don't think this is a terribly bad idea considering the rut his previous knuckle draggers got him, and this country, into.
Not just worst president ever. But quickly becoming scariest president ever.
As visual metaphors go, it was a lavishly gilded lily of an image, a
hanging curveball across the plate, a George Tenet-style slam-dunk: A
weary President Bush, trying to escape a news conference in Beijing on
Sunday, strides away from the microphone to a pair of locked doors,
which he pulls and tugs in vain. No exit
From 
