-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: January 10, 2007 8:07:10 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: NY Times -- Bush Is a Failure-Junkie Begging for Another Fix
January 11, 2007
Editorial
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/opinion/11thu1.html?hp
The Real Disaster
President Bush told Americans last night that failure in Iraq would
be a disaster. The disaster is Mr. Bush’s war, and he has already
failed. Last night was his chance to stop offering more fog and be
honest with the nation, and he did not take it.
Americans needed to hear a clear plan to extricate United States
troops from the disaster that Mr. Bush created. What they got was
more gauzy talk of victory in the war on terrorism and of creating
a “young democracy” in Iraq. In other words, a way for this
president to run out the clock and leave his mess for the next one.
Mr. Bush did acknowledge that some of his previous tactics had
failed. But even then, the president sounded as if he were an
accidental tourist in Iraq. He described the failure of last year’s
effort to pacify Baghdad as if the White House and the Pentagon
bore no responsibility.
In any case, Mr. Bush’s excuses were tragically inadequate. The
nation needs an eyes-wide-open recognition that the only goal left
is to get the U.S. military out of this civil war in a way that
could minimize the slaughter of Iraqis and reduce the chances that
the chaos Mr. Bush unleashed will engulf Iraq’s neighbors.
What it certainly did not need were more of Mr. Bush’s open-ended
threats to Iran and Syria.
Before Mr. Bush spoke, Americans knew he planned to send more
troops to pacify lawless Baghdad. Mr. Bush’s task was to justify
that escalation by acknowledging that there was no military
solution to this war and outlining the political mission that the
military would be serving. We were waiting for him to detail the
specific milestones that he would set for the Iraqis, set clear
timelines for when they would be expected to meet them, and explain
what he intended to do if they again failed.
Instead, he said he had warned the Iraqis that if they didn’t come
through, they would lose the faith of the American people. Has Mr.
Bush really not noticed that the American people long ago lost
faith in the Iraqi government — and in him as well? Americans know
that this Iraqi government is captive to Shiite militias, with no
interest in the unity, reconciliation and democracy that Mr. Bush
says he wants.
Mr. Bush said yet again that he wanted the Iraqi government to step
up to the task of providing its security, and that Iraq needed a
law on the fair distribution of oil money. Iraq’s government needs
to do a lot more than that, starting with disarming the sectarian
militias that are feeding the civil war and purging the police
forces that too often are really death squads. It needs to offer
amnesty to insurgents and militia fighters willing to put down
their weapons. It needs to do those things immediately.
Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government has heard this list before. But
so long as Mr. Bush is willing to back that failed government
indefinitely — enabling is the psychological term — Iraq’s leaders
will have no reason to move against the militias and more fairly
share power with the Sunni minority.
Mr. Bush did announce his plan for 20,000 more troops, and the
White House trumpeted a $1 billion contribution to reconstruction
efforts. Congress will debate these as if they are the real issues.
But they are not. Talk of a “surge” ignores the other 140,000
American troops trapped by a failed strategy.
We have argued that the United States has a moral obligation to
stay in Iraq as long as there is a chance to mitigate the damage
that a quick withdrawal might cause. We have called for an effort
to secure Baghdad, but as part of the sort of comprehensive
political solution utterly lacking in Mr. Bush’s speech. This war
has reached the point that merely prolonging it could make a bad
ending even worse. Without a real plan to bring it to a close,
there is no point in talking about jobs programs and military
offensives. There is nothing ahead but even greater disaster in Iraq.
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