|
How Things Change
by James Glaser May 2, 2007 Somebody sent the following article to me in an e-mail today, so I don't know who wrote it or what news outlet it came from. WASHINGTON, May 1—President Bush's made-for-television address tonight on the carrier Abraham Lincoln was a powerful, Reaganesque finale to a six-week war. But beneath the golden images of a president steaming home with his troops toward the California coast lay the cold political and military realities that drove Mr. Bush's advisers to create the moment. The president declared an end to major combat operations, White House, Pentagon and State Department officials said, for three crucial reasons: to signify the shift of American soldiers from the role of conquerors to police, to open the way for aid from countries that refused to help militarily and—above all—to signal to voters that Mr. Bush is shifting his focus from Baghdad to concerns at home.... "This is the formalization that tells everybody we're not engaged in combat anymore, we're prepared for getting out," a senior administration official said.... It was four years ago that George Bush made that 'Mission Accomplished" speech, and I think it is interesting that at that time, according to Mr. Bush, we were shifting from "the role of conquerors to police." I don't think the American people were ever told that we attacked Iraq to conquer it. That word fits with George Bush's smug declaration of Mission Accomplished back on May 1st 2003. It also shows us how as Commander-in-Chief, George Bush, had not a clue of what war really entails. For sure we have never conquered Iraq, and the mission, (whatever that was) was never accomplished. This next quote comes from the New York Times, the day after Bush made his speech on the aircraft carrier in 2003. Back then George was so sure of himself, that he was thinking about bringing some of our troops home. Now, four years later, we are adding more American troops, and most of Bush's foreign coalition forces left a long time ago. By Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt BAGHDAD, May 2—The Bush administration is planning to withdraw most United States combat forces from Iraq over the next several months and wants to shrink the American military presence to less than two divisions by the fall, senior allied officials said today. The United States currently has more than five divisions in Iraq, troops that fought their way into the country and units that were added in an attempt to stabilize it. But the Bush administration is trying to establish a new military structure in which American troops would continue to secure Baghdad while the majority of the forces in Iraq would be from other nations. If you listen to George Bush speak on Iraq today you will see that the last four years have not taught him much. He still talks about winning and the progress we are making. The man lives in a fairy tale world of heroes and victories won. With hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis killed, more than that wounded, with millions displaced, how any one can talk about any sort of victory or winning is beyond me. |
BACK to the 2007 Politics Columns.