Fueling more terror
Thursday, September 28, 2006
courier-journal.com
For the longest time, President Bush was able to deflect healthy criticism and analysis of the Iraq war by getting angry and acting bold and determined.
That day is gone, as this week's furor over a National Intelligence Estimate illustrates.
Part of Mr. Bush's problem, of course, is that the most damaging indictments of his failed Iraq policy are not coming from liberals, Democrats or any of the other usual suspects. They come from the ranks of the CIA, the professional military (active and retired) and the Republican foreign policy leadership in Congress.
But a far bigger issue is that the President seems constitutionally unable to do what is clearly needed -- acknowledge that the Iraq war has been a disastrous mistake, offer straight talk about the situation and reach out to opponents to form as broad a consensus as possible on new approaches.
Confronted with an NIE conclusion that Islamic extremists are multiplying and dispersing, and that the Iraq war has worsened the terror threat, Mr. Bush on Tuesday offered another stubborn defense of his policy and his usual stay-the-course refrain.
It was a distressing performance.
The President's assertion that "the only way to protect this country is to stay on the offense" dodges the central issues. Few argue against a vigorous response to terrorism. But "stay on the offense" against whom, and where, and when, and how? Those are the questions that the NIE report and other studies suggest Mr. Bush got wrong.
The White House also seized on the NIE conclusion that a jihadist defeat in Iraq would harm terrorists' morale and recruiting. That's probably true, and it's a big reason that many critics of the war oppose a quick U.S. withdrawal.
But the President's unmet challenge is to work with others to devise a strategy for success. What he has now in Iraq is staggering sectarian violence, unbearable levels of bloodshed in Baghdad, an ineffective Iraqi army and an Iraqi prime minister who is in cahoots with a leading anti-American Islamic militia and with the government of Iran.
The President has had a bad week. The NIE report puts the unpopular Iraq war back on the front pages, which is not where Mr. Bush and Republicans want to see it before the election.
But the United States and Iraq have had a bad three-and-a-half years, while terrorists have made gains.
That's the reality the NIE report addresses forthrightly. The President should follow suit. |
