Bush at press conference: hit hard by press questions. His answers are not very convincing. He will win new converts even though he is trying to look restrained and measured.
What he keeps repeating is that HE thinks Saddam is an imminent threat (even if most people dont), that it's his job to protect us from this "threat", that his war (and it is HIS war now) is for "peace" (??), and he repeats the monotonous charges we've heard a thousand times about Saddam and WMD, even saying Saddam trained Al Qaida (which no one has seen any evidence of).
Although he's probably right about WMD existing, Bush has to realize he may be the one who makes Saddam use them.
Bush really looks amateurish and over his head, not able to grasp the full complexities, frozen in a loop of slogan repetition, in a pickle he wont admit, and unable to deal with the fact he is disdained by most of the world for his arrogance now. He's actually succeeded in making some people feel sorry for Saddam. Quite an accomplishment. Boy can we do better, folks. Bush without a written speech is embarassing to the US.
His one hope has to be that if he pushes the trigger it is a quick war and people forget about this or give him more credit. It's certainly not working out the day it did for his Poppy. That said, I hope he gets it over with quick with the minimum of nasty surprises and repercussions. But a lot of damage to US integrity has been done. And I have to say, in the end, this has to really be about oil, regardless of Bushie denials. |
