President Bush's TV address tonight was the worst speech he's ever given on the war in Iraq, and that's saying a lot. Every premise, every proposal, nearly every substantive point was sheer fiction. The only question is whether he was being deceptive or delusional.
The biggest fiction was that because of the "success" of the surge, we can reduce U.S. troop levels in Iraq from 20 combat brigades to 15 by next July. Gen. David Petraeus has recommended this step, and President George W. Bush will order it so.
Let's be clear one more time about this claim: The surge of five extra combat brigades (bringing the total from 15 to 20) started in January. Their 15-month tours of duty will begin to expire next April. The Army and Marines have no combat units ready to replace them. The service chiefs refuse to extend the tours any further. The president refuses to mobilize the reserves any further. And so, the surge will be over by next July. This has been understood from the outset. It is the result of simple arithmetic, not of anyone's decision, much less some putative success.
Exactly. The purpose of the surge was never to resolve the war; it was to keep it going, and now that simple math necessitates at least some drawdown, Bush is lamely attempting to couch that in the rhetoric of success.
I don't even know what to say anymore. This man is either flat-out delusional, or he is as shameless a huckster as any Crazy Eddie trying to sell you an exploding Pinto. Who the fuck is falling for this still, and how much longer is he permitted to play kick-the-can with other people's lives?
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