1115.org

(1) Straight From The Shoulder
I love it when President Bush does that old-fashioned plain talking, like he did on Wednesday:

I know many Americans are not satisfied with the situation in Iraq. I’m not satisfied, either.

I know what many Americans are doing about their dissatisfaction, George. What are you doing about yours? (Other than giving Donald Rumsfeld another big round of applause, that is?)

And that is why we’re taking new steps to help secure Baghdad, and constantly adjusting our tactics across the country to meet the changing threat.

Taking unspecified new steps? Or did you mean taking the new and unprecedented step of announcing that the government of the sovereign nation of Iraq has agreed to a timetable, when the government of the sovereign nation of Iraq has no recollection of doing anything of the sort (and isn’t shy about saying so)?

As for constantly adjusting our tactics, nothing new in that, right? We’ve been constantly adjusting our tactics for as long as the Bush-men have been spouting defensive rhetoric. Which, let’s not forget, is a good long time. And “many Americans” and President Bush have arrived at their current state of dissatisfaction despite our constantly changing tactics. So at this stage it’s pretty hard to sell our constantly changing tactics as a solution for the dissatisfaction.

So where does that leave us? You’re dissatisfied with how things are going in Iraq. And Iraq is the critical battleground in the key ideological struggle of the 21st century. And your response is to talk a lot but not actually do anything different? The guiding principle is … what? If it ain’t working, don’t fix it?

(2) The Silence Of The Hawks
How come President Bush talks only about goals and strategies and objectives, when most of the administration’s effort on the Iraq front seems to be going into reformulating the rhetoric?

What President Bush said:

Our goals are unchanging. We are flexible in our methods to achieving those goals.

What the truth actually seems to be:
Our goals are unchanging. We are constantly making meaningless, ineffective changes in our methods to achieving those goals. We are perfectly flexible in the rhetoric we employ to claim that we are well on the way to achieving our goals.

(3) “Govern” Go Bye-bye

Remember “sustain itself, govern itself and defend itself”? Looks like the President has come to accept that Iraq is never going to be able to govern himself. His first reference to this old slogan was:

I’ll also explain why, despite the difficulties and bloodshed, it remains critical that America defeat the enemy in Iraq by helping the Iraqis build a free nation that can sustain itself and defend itself.

(4) The New Mantra

Constantly changing our tactics. Bush invoked this mantra five times during his press conference yesterday, three times in his speech and twice in response to questions:

On the military side, our commanders on the ground are constantly adjusting our tactics to stay ahead of our enemies.
[...]
And that is why we’re taking new steps to help secure Baghdad, and constantly adjusting our tactics across the country to meet the changing threat.
[...]
And my point to the American people is, is that we’re constantly adjusting our tactics to achieve victory.
[...]
What will work is a strategy that’s constantly — tactics that constantly change to meet the enemy.
[...]
And that’s important for the American people to know, that we’re constantly changing tactics to meet the situation on the ground.

Will it ever dawn on Bush that it doesn’t matter whether you call it “staying the course” or “not staying the course” or “constantly changing our tactics”. What matters is it isn’t working. Never has. And at this point there’s no basis for the hope that it ever will.

(5) If At First You Don’t Succeed

We were facing a nation state — two nation states — three nation states in World War II.

Can we please have a President who can go straight to three without having to count his way out loud? Thank God the cameras didn’t show what his fingers were doing.

(6) Some Of The Bigger Whoppers

No Bush press conference is complete without several statements that are outrageously at odds with the facts, and Wednesday was no different. In fact some of Wednesday’s whoppers are positively supersized. Here’s a small selection for your reading pleasure, offered with minimal comments, because comments are hardly necessary.

American and Iraqi forces have … cleared (Baghdad) neighborhoods of terrorists and death squads

Okay. Name just one. Better still, send the twins to take a five minute walk in the one you name.

I know the American people understand the stakes in Iraq. They want to win.

Not unless win means “pull out”, Georgie. (To be fair, he probably threw that in just to prove he pays no attention to polls.)

Most of al Qaeda that planned the attacks on September the 11th have been brought to justice.

I’m glad he made it official. Being tortured for years in secret CIA prisons and then being transferred to that holiday camp with five-star cuisine known as Guantanamo, this is what Bush regards as “being brought to justice”.

(7) The Bizarro Moments

And then, of course, there are the Bizarro moments. (If you ask me, we’re losing the Iraq war because the White House employs really crappy speechwriters.)

We are refining our training strategy for the Iraqi security forces so we can help more of those forces take the lead in the fight, and provide them better equipment and fire power to be successful.

Refining our training strategy will help us provide them better equipment? And that doesn’t work with U.S. troops and body armor?

And the crucial battle right now is Iraq. And as I said in my statement, I understand how tough it is, really tough. It’s tough for a reason; because people understand the stakes of success in Iraq.

I think that’s an impassioned call for all right-thinking Americans to stop understanding the stakes of success in Iraq.

(8) How We’re Going To Win

It wasn’t all lies and doublespeak. In response to the first question he was glad to answer, President Bush laid out – clearly and baldly – how he plans to win the Iraq war.

Q Mr. President, the war in Iraq has lasted almost as long as World War II for the United States. And as you mentioned, October was the deadliest month for American forces this year — in a year. Do you think we’re winning, and why?

And the answer:

As a matter of fact, my view is the only way we lose in Iraq is if we leave before the job is done.
[…]
Absolutely, we’re winning.

It’s an elegantly simple two–step plan. First, don’t define winning as getting the job done, define losing as leaving before the job is done. Second, never leave. We never lose. Therefore we eventually win. So, as long as our policy is to never leave, we can truthfully say that we are winning.

(Regrettably, no one in the assembled White House press corps asked him why he was not satisfied if we’re winning so absolutely.)