What is Bush’s Strategy for Success in Iraq? 9/11

What is Bush’s Strategy for Success in Iraq? 9/11

June 29, 2005

President Bush invoked the 9/11 terrorist attacks over and over again last night in his prime time address on Iraq. The continued conflation of Iraq with the al Qaeda attacks can only be seen as willful manipulation of the goodwill of the American public to force support for a deeply unpopular war that is destroying the U.S. military. Calling on our troops and citizens to stay the course on his disastrous path in Iraq, the president failed to provide a straight story about the long term difficulties faced in Iraq or to outline a coherent strategy for success.

• Unable to defend the war on its merits, President Bush continues to invoke the 9/11 attacks as a diversion from the harsh reality on the ground in Iraq. Coming on the heels of Karl Rove's politicization of the 9-11 attacks, it seems clear the White House has turned to the aid of that tragic day to help prop up a reeling president. In a speech littered with references to 9-11, Bush circumvented the real problems facing U.S. forces in Iraq by attempting to inspire imagery of another attack on our homeland. Bush stated last night: "The troops here and across the world are fighting a global war on terror. The war reached our shores on September the 11th, 2001." The argument that we had to go to war in Iraq because we were attacked on 9-11 is patently false. And Bush knows it -- he previously said he "couldn't make that claim" that Iraq was connected to 9-11 and that he had "no evidence" that Saddam was connected to 9-11.
  
  
• Bush failed to level with Americans about the dire security and political challenges his decisions have created in Iraq. As the daily toll of America's sacrifice in lives and dollars in Iraq continues to increase, Bush did little last night to allay the fears of those who see no end in sight. Moreover, he gave little impression that he understands the nature of the insurgency. Bush declined to weigh in on the dispute between Rumsfeld and Cheney about whether the insurgency is in its "last throes" or will last another decade. Bush failed to admit any mistakes and failed to explain any new strategy for winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis, defeating the terrorist insurgents, reconstructing Iraq, and bringing our troops home.
  
  
• Bush’s “new” strategy for Iraq is just a rehashing of the failed strategy he laid out one year ago. Bush claimed last night to offer "three new steps" to fixing Iraq, none of which were new. His ideas to "partner coalition units with Iraqi units," embed "transition teams" inside Iraqi units, and third, work with the Iraqi Ministries of Interior and Defense to "coordinate anti-terrorism operations" sounded eerily familiar. That’s because in May 2004, Bush delivered a much-hyped speech at the Army War College that tried to outline the same "specific steps" in Iraq.