Bush can't change direction despite this grim milestone

[emad]

The Times October 25, 2005

Foreign Editor's Briefing

By Bronwen Maddox



WHEN the US reaches the grim milestone of 2,000 military deaths in Iraq, will the outcry force the Bush Administration to change course? More precisely, will it force the White House to begin bringing back troops earlier than it would have done? It can’t. Iraq is the one policy to which President Bush is committed, above all others. US officials say that if you even mention pulling out from Iraq in the Oval Office “you better be wearing an asbestos suit”. The roots of the commitment go deeper than the President’s personal indignation at the thought that he might quit. The effect on the US’s reputation abroad would be devastating.

The Bush Administration is locked into a plan that it cannot abandon without losing more than face: its influence in a region that is pathologically sensitive to weakness. The US can’t easily withdraw troops unless that is endorsed by the permanent Iraqi government due to be elected in December.

So it can’t leave until that government looks stable — and at least claims to be able to control its own security forces. That could be as early as next year. But if the US left before then, it would hand victory to al-Qaeda. It may not be easy to define winning the War on Terror but it is very easy to define losing it: offering up a spectacle of American humiliation that would be a greater inspiration for jihadists even than September 11, 2001.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-1841254,00.html

[ixion]

1. Bush chose this humiliating defeat the day he chose to illegally invade

Iraq.

Thus far, it's not working out well for anyone concerned. Us or the Iraqis. :-(