George Bush's Iraq

Tomorrow, George Bush will use the backdrop of a military base to give a speech to the nation on Iraq. Preview here. As for what the speech should be about, I think Suzanne Nossel is hitting the right notes.

In the wake of Prime Minister Jaafari's visit, and given the planned backdrop of flags and troops, there is a real possibility that the president will claim some kind of vindication of his policy while at the same time being hyper-defensive of criticism. You know how he is. I hope this is not the case, but his personal style leans in this direction, and the choice of Fort Bragg as camera fodder leaves me less than optimistic. For years, Bush has sustained his "war presidency" credibility with appeal to the flag fallacies (e.g., the 'to criticize inept policy is to comfort terrorists' argument). That won't work again tomorrow night. People want results; not platitudes and sanctimony. There's going to have to be some meat on the bones, or his credibility will sink even deeper with no one else standing around to blame.

While Bush can claim success in that elections were held and a constitution is being drafted, this has not led to the appreciable security gains everyone hoped for. So talking about a political schedule, though important, is not to talk about a plan that wins a war . . . unless the plan is not to win but withdraw troops after certain political benchmarks have been passed. The fact is, vast swaths of Iraq are not under American control. Instead, we make occasional expeditions to make life hard for the enemy, but how many times are we going to invade Anbar province instead of occupying it?

Also, while Iraq was speciously sold as part of the war on terror, subsequently terrorists have made it the centerpiece of their war on America. Meanwhile, the broader, global war has suffered distraction and constraint every since. How to retake the initiative to win not only in Iraq, but around the world? A president that asks for some sacrifice may be the place to start, but that takes credibility.

Lastly, if the president is going to use living American troops as political backdrops, he could show a little more respect for all those that have died in Iraq. While he does visit wounded troops and has private visits with selected families, it is past time Bush attended some funerals. To not do so implies shame on his part; even moreso it's a cynical White House calculation to keep attention off of the caskets.

Addendum: NYT: "Some in GOP call on Bush to focus on governing."