1115.org

Too many people have accused George Bush for too long of not having an Iraq policy at all. Those who concede that he does indeed have a policy are pessimistically convinced that he has no intention of changing his policy. Well, I’m here to testify that not only did George W. Bush have an Iraq policy, but he now has a new Iraq policy.

President Bush seems to have settled on what is best described as a two-pronged approach to the Iraq problem. On the one hand, he addresses the American people, telling them what he knows they want to hear:

“I want to hear all advice before I make any decisions about adjustments to our strategy in Iraq,” Bush said in his radio address on Saturday.

Bush pledged to seek bipartisan consensus on the way forward in Iraq, and offered conciliatory words but no concessions to critics of his Iraq policy.

In case it wasn’t repeated enough times on election night, Democrats are remarkably unified in their stand that the American people have spoken, and what they have demanded in no uncertain terms is a new direction. Especially in Iraq.

Even Bush can’t need to have that explained to him. So when he speaks glibly about seeking bipartisan consensus, does he mean that he is going to offer a new Iraq policy that Democrats can comfortably support? Don’t be bloody stupid; Bush would rather give head to Saddam Hussein.

But State Department and National Security Council officials told foreign diplomats on Wednesday not to expect any major policy shifts, no matter what the (Iraq Study) group recommends, The Washington Post reported, citing unidentified diplomats familiar with the private briefing.

At one level, this two-pronged approach, of course, is exactly what our Iraq policy has consisted of all along—say whatever needs to be said, then do exactly what you want. They have never said things that were true. Why change now?

But at another level, this two-pronged approach is indeed a new policy. Bush can look at himself in the mirror, and honestly congratulate himself for having made important new changes to the Iraq policy. In the old days, in their fresh-faced naiveté, what they said was whatever was needed to justify what they were doing. It may not have been true, but what they said was connected to what they did. They said it because they needed to do certain things (it having already been laid down that these things would be done, come hell or high water). And they still felt the need to externally justify what they were doing. Now what they are saying has nothing to do with what they plan to do. They are lying, as before, but now the lies are not about why they’re doing it. Now they are lying about what they will (or will not) do. They no longer feel the need to justify their actions or inactions.

The days of selling the Iraq policy are over. They have moved beyond our approval or disapproval. The tune they’re marching to now is that Cheney trademark: go fuck yourself, buddy.