Joe Conason (Salon): Bush's ideological quagmire

[Jack Rabbit]

From Salon.com (Subscription or Day Pass Required)
Dated Saturday September 24

Bush's ideological quagmire
Negotiating a cease-fire with the Iraq insurgents, using the carrot of U.S. withdrawal, is the smartest exit strategy for Bush. But he's too stubborn and foolish to do it.
By Joe Conason

On the eve of renewed antiwar protests in Washington and on the West Coast, and with public confidence in him plunging, George W. Bush vowed to continue Iraq war policies that have already failed. Bereft of resources and ideas, he resorted again Thursday to the slogans and clichés that used to serve him so well. And as if further proof were needed, he showed once more how poorly he understands the strategies and goals of America's real enemies.

From the beginning, Bush has sought to connect the overthrow of Saddam Hussein with the U.S.-led war against al-Qaida, a notion thoroughly discredited but never surrendered. Speaking after a Defense Department briefing on the "global war against terror," he vowed that his administration would not withdraw troops from Iraq "on my watch" because that would permit terrorists "to claim an historic victory over the United States."

Said Bush, "The only way the terrorists can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon the mission." Should that occur, he warned, then terrorist leaders Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would come "to dominate the Middle East and launch more attacks on America and other free nations." He also said that we must "honor the sacrifice" of the nearly two thousand American troops who have died in Iraq "by completing the mission and winning the war on terrorism."

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[drduffy]

1. It is hard to expand

upon that. I would not permit my son to die for that asshole, his - reputation - and/or any of their rationales for continuing to fight. Nor for oil or the PNAC goals or any of that shit. We both would have fought in WWII. But Iraq??

[Dez]

2. Chimpy is incapable of

admitting to a mistake, and the Iraqi war has been his biggest mistake so far! If we were to pull out, just look how much Halliburton would lose.. can't do that! Corporate interests come first, with this administration.