President Bush continues with his arrogant and futile idiocy:
President George W. Bush insisted Thursday America could still win the war in Iraq, despite a bleak picture of progress in the war-wracked nation painted by a White House report. As Bush tried to quell a Republican revolt and thwart rising Democratic demands to bring troops home, he argued there were still grounds for optimism, especially in the area of security.
“I believe we can succeed in Iraq, and I know we must,” Bush said at a press conference called to defend his unpopular strategy, and ruled out any troop withdrawals based on souring public opinion on the war.
I’m beginning to enjoy watching Bush crash and burn, I just wish it wasn’t costing the lives of American soldiers in the meantime. You cannot win even a mid-size war without the support of the people, which is the whole reason for Congress declaring war and making sure that the people are fully behind the war in the first place.
Bush and the neo-cons thought they could finesse the issue, and they could have had they been content to take out Hussein, declare victory and come home. Instead, they pushed all their chips back in and bet that they could remake the Middle East via an Iraqi democracy. They’ve already lost their bet, but like a gambler who thinks just one more hand might do the trick, they refuse to leave the table.
Every politician thinks he’s got the game figured out, that he knows better than the Founding Fathers did. It’s interesting to see how often attempts to circumvent the Constitution winds up biting the circumventer in the backside.
President Bush says he believes we can succeed. That’s nice; it’s also not the issue. The point is that the vast majority of Americans don’t think we can. He was given the benefit of the doubt and plenty of time to seal the deal and he didn’t perform. Game over.