by James Glaser
January 27, 2005

George Bush has painted himself into a corner and that corner is Iraq. Worse than that, he has painted our troops into that corner with him. Every President of the Unites States knows that he is going down in history and like any other politician, George Bush thinks a lot of himself, his reputation, and its place in history.

Today, January 26, 2005, we had more American troops killed in Iraq than on any day since the war started on March 19, 2003. If you think back to Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech on an aircraft carrier on May 1, 2003, you will remember how pumped he was. By that date Saddam's forces had been defeated, Saddam Hussein was in hiding, and we had only had 137 of our troops killed. Since then, 1316 more Americans have been killed and over 10,000 more have been wounded.

George was pumped full of adrenalin when he announced that Saddam was found hiding in a hole in the ground. That was back on December 13, 2003 and since then almost 1,000 Americans have been killed.

It doesn't matter to George Bush that we answered the question about Weapons of Mass Destruction—There were none. Or that we got rid of Saddam Hussein and he is sitting in some hidden jail some place. It doesn't matter that (in theory) have given Iraq back to the Iraqis, because George Bush and his historical record are trapped there until there is some sort of "Victory" that Bush can claim.

If George pulled our troops out now, it would look, at least to George, like somehow he lost the war. It doesn't matter to President Bush that our troops have done everything that our country has asked of them. They defeated the Iraqi army, they captured Saddam and just about everyone in his government, and they have given their lives and their limbs to secure the country so we could give it back to a provisional government and we did that last June.

George Bush keeps wanting a clear cut victory for the history books and every day more and more American troops are getting killed and maimed.

When asked about all the troops that were killed today, George fell back on his line that the world is a safer place without Saddam Hussein. I find that a tired old line that is actually a lie. Yes there is no doubt that the Iraqi people are better off without Saddam, but we have to remember that Saddam was never a threat to the United States.

Saddam and Iraq did not have Weapons of Mass Destruction. Saddam and Iraq had a pitiful army, they had no navy, and they had no air force. Saddam Hussein did not have the means to attack our country and we now know that he had no connection to the terrorists. In fact we now know that the terrorists didn't like Saddam either.

So, George Bush used our country's Military to attack Iraq and he was successful. He destroyed Iraq's military, he captured Saddam Hussein, he captured Saddam's government so that it could not be put back in place, he answered the question about WMDs, he put together a provisional Iraqi government and turned the country back to that government, and he endowed them with billions of dollars and the promise of more to rebuild the country.

So, what is his problem? His problem is that he doesn't feel like a hero yet and he wants that for his legacy. He wants American kids to think of him like a 21st century Lincoln. He wants to pretend in his mind that his wars bring peace. That he is a uniter and not a divider.

In the mean time the Pentagon is talking about leaving American troops in Iraq for at least another two years. In that time we may lose another 1,500 killed and another 11,000 wounded and why are we willing to pay that price? So that in historical terms, George Bush can look good.