Part 2.
It was a crazy scheme: Anyone who has spent time in Iraq knows Iraqis would never accept their former colonial power policing them. In fact, the Turks have changed their minds and announced they will not be sending troops, after all.
Cheney has cited a Zogby International poll to back his claim that there is "very positive news" in Iraq.
But the pollster, John Zogby, told me, "I was floored to see the spin that was put on it; some of the numbers were not my numbers at all."
Cheney said Iraqis chose the United States as their model for democracy "hands down," and he and other officials say a majority want American troops to stay at least another year.
In fact, Zogby said, only 23 percent favor the U.S. democratic model, and 65 percent want the United States to leave in a year or less.
"I am not willing to say they lied," Zogby said. "But they used a very tight process of selective screening, and when they didn't get what they wanted they were willing to manufacture some results. . . . There was almost nothing in that poll to give them comfort."
Sure, we're making some progress in Iraq. A hand grenade sells now for $2.50, compared with 10 cents each a few months ago. But U.S. troops now face 25 to 30 attacks daily, compared with 15 to 20 in September. Last month 33 Americans were killed, twice as many as in September.
One of Bush's strengths as a politician is his optimistic nature, but I now fear it is also his central weakness in governing.
Reckless overconfidence led him to adopt fiscal policies that will leave our children indebted, and this same cockiness led us into Iraq.
Brash optimism perhaps has
its roots in Bush's hometown, Midland, Texas, an oil town that regularly rewarded hard work with a gusher,
a place where everybody you meet
displays this same hearty can-do
confidence. In Midland, Bush unfortunately absorbed the lesson that risks in the desert pay off.
So the scary thing is, Bush and his aides may not be lying when they look at Iraq and boast of a cheering population that a Western press sourly refuses to acknowledge. There's a precedent: Saddam Hussein.
* Nicholas D. Kristof is a columnist for The New York Times, 229 W. 43rd St., New York, NY 10036; e-mail: nicholas@nytimes.com. |
