Marble Composition

A Fundamental Misunderstanding

After over three years of war in Iraq, we get a headline like this from the AP:

Bush: Iraq enemy far from being defeated

Let's keep this short. After declaring Mission Accomplished in May of 2003, who are we supposed to believe is the enemy? Who does he think we need to defeat? Of course he won't say. He continues to lump everything and anything into a Frankenstein description of the War in Iraq.

There are at least four separate, ongoing conflicts tearing Iraq apart:

1. Al Qaeda in Iraq killing American soldiers and Shiites.
2. A Sunni - Shiite civil war
3. Intra-sectarian battles between rival Shiite militias.
4. A Sunni insurgency comprised of ex-Baathists.

Does anyone really believe he'll ever pick a new "enemy", and then defeat it? All we're going to get for two more years is this:

"We're not going to give up. The stakes are too high and the consequences too grave..."

He's got two options on the table: Pick a new "enemy" to defeat, presumably at this point the Sunnis, and witness a massive wave of killings up close, or, pull our troops out now and watch the sectarian slaughter from afar.

Guess which one he'll choose? Neither. He'll kick this bloody can down the road for two more years until he's gone. For Bush, it really doesn't matter what happens in Iraq from here on out. The only thing he's concerned about is that he never gets blamed for "losing the war". Loss of life, both American and Iraqi, and a further descent into violent chaos are no longer on his radar. From now on, he needs to make sure he's remembered as a "winner". Someone who never "gave up." The man who declared "victory". The man who's great "legacy" must be carved in granite.

Trust me, the historians will get it right. This guy was a monkey at the helm of an out-of-control freight train; you know, the one who missed that elusive "victory" thing three stops back.

posted by FuzzFinger @ 12/14/2006 12:26:00 AM