Home » forums » General Information and Discussion » General Issues

Bush's Simplistic Vision

Submitted by frandy on Sat, 03/29/2008 - 6:20pm.

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, March 28, 2008

The new wave of violence sweeping Iraq is not just a powerful rejoinder to President Bush's insistence that the U.S. troop surge has been a success -- it's also a reminder of how the problems facing that troubled country are much more complex than he will acknowledge.

In the vision Bush puts forward, there are just two sides in Iraq: The good guys and the bad guys; our team and an enemy who, as he put it in his speech yesterday, "will try to fill the TV screens with violence." To Bush, the people of Iraq need our help to save them from terrorists who intend to overthrow Iraq's brave and unified government on their way to attacking America.

That the current battle in Basra is essentially between rival Shiite militias fighting for political power doesn't alter his narrative.

Bush yesterday said the Basra offensive shows Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "commitment to enforce the law in an even-handed manner" and demonstrates "the progress the Iraqi security forces have made during the surge." The ultimate result, he said, would be that "terrorists and extremists in Iraq will know they have no place in a free and democratic society."

But, increasingly, it looks like the result of the bloodletting in Basra may be the U.S. more actively taking up arms in the messy, multi-sided civil war that the surge, rather than resolving, has apparently only postponed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/03/28/BL2008032801916.html

‹ Why will Senator Voinovich not support the Post 9/11 GI Bill?Low Down Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - Wat's up Wit dat? ›
» login or register to post comments | email this forum

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Can Someone Open Their Eyes

Submitted by raz on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 4:27pm.
Realization had made people fear that fighting could break out again. Naturally the Media didn't show how the Iraqi people had watched the Iraqi troops flee before Mahdi Army members. "We are so afraid of tomorrow. The Iraqi Army is in the street but the fighting showed that the militia is still stronger than the Iraqi Army." Many said the militia had bested the Iraqi forces at nearly every confrontation. "The Iraqi Army is equipped with heavy machines and the Mahdi Army has simple weapons, but they have the doctrine to become martyrs," said Hussein Mohammed, who lives in the Mahdi strong hold of al Hayaniyah, which government forces tried, but failed, to penetrate. "The national army did not win the battle." Most people agreed that it was unlikely that the Mahdi Army would be defeated militarily. When the US Troops should be doing what they do best they had orders to sit back and wait for a call. Bush and Crooks do not want this war to end and if they continue cowering down to these fools we will be there for TEN, hell Even A Hundred Years.
» login or register to post comments | email this comment