What Wasn't Said (or done) Was Worse
That's my basic impression of President Bush's speech the other night. It was as many predicted, "The Same Way: Backwards;" an admission not that our direction was wrong, but that we were just using the wrong vehicle. Or in other words: "We couldn't go through the brick wall driving the Mercedes, let's try a Hummer."
Scarier than that (the undisputable proof that this president will never listen to anyone outside of he pre-approved group of bobbleheads) is what he didn't talk about. Four pop into my head:
*NO PLAN B*
Bush never said what our options are if this fails. He didn't say whether we would surge more, surge less or surge sideways. He didn't say whether he'd depend more or less on the Iraqi government if this fails. He didn't ask Congress to hold some money aside from a rainy day (I know there's no money; but that's never stopped him from asking before).
*WHY 2006 WAS AN UTTER FAILURE*
"Their strategy worked," he said, talking about the violent attacks from "Al Qaeda terrorists and Sunni insurgents" in the wake of the 2005 elections. Remember: purple fingers and dancing in the streets? I recall Bush saying that if you had an average Iraqi compare our version of democracy to Al Qaeda's version of government, we'd win every time. So why didn't it work?
*THE LIBRARY? WTF?*
If I'm the POTUS, and I'm about to give a speech about kicking ass and taking names, I'd do it in the Oval Office. That's where you make those kinds of speeches: in front of two flags waving in slow motion, pounding on your power desk to emphasize key points. But the library? What is this, the boardgame Clue? The last time I saw Bush around so many books, he was staring into space wondering who the hell just attacked us. Is that really the memories he wanted to invoke?
*WHY THE TWO ORDERS?*
If Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - and, be extentsion, his "co-workers" - is so inept that we have to surge to keep things together, then why should the American people have any faith in them whatsoever? "Trust him, he's in idiot," was what I got out of the whole Iraqi-provisional-government-needs-our-help-some-more segment. Um, why?
Scarier than that (the undisputable proof that this president will never listen to anyone outside of he pre-approved group of bobbleheads) is what he didn't talk about. Four pop into my head:
*NO PLAN B*
Bush never said what our options are if this fails. He didn't say whether we would surge more, surge less or surge sideways. He didn't say whether he'd depend more or less on the Iraqi government if this fails. He didn't ask Congress to hold some money aside from a rainy day (I know there's no money; but that's never stopped him from asking before).
*WHY 2006 WAS AN UTTER FAILURE*
"Their strategy worked," he said, talking about the violent attacks from "Al Qaeda terrorists and Sunni insurgents" in the wake of the 2005 elections. Remember: purple fingers and dancing in the streets? I recall Bush saying that if you had an average Iraqi compare our version of democracy to Al Qaeda's version of government, we'd win every time. So why didn't it work?
*THE LIBRARY? WTF?*
If I'm the POTUS, and I'm about to give a speech about kicking ass and taking names, I'd do it in the Oval Office. That's where you make those kinds of speeches: in front of two flags waving in slow motion, pounding on your power desk to emphasize key points. But the library? What is this, the boardgame Clue? The last time I saw Bush around so many books, he was staring into space wondering who the hell just attacked us. Is that really the memories he wanted to invoke?
*WHY THE TWO ORDERS?*
If Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - and, be extentsion, his "co-workers" - is so inept that we have to surge to keep things together, then why should the American people have any faith in them whatsoever? "Trust him, he's in idiot," was what I got out of the whole Iraqi-provisional-government-needs-our-help-some-more segment. Um, why?
Comments