If this isn't the biggest flip-flop of all, you can put a blue roof on me and call me IHOP. I thought up until just a little while ago that the Islamofascists were as bad as or worse than Nazis and that those who questioned Bush's Iraq policy were Chamberlains. Now, however, Iraq is "just a comma" in the pages of history yet unwritten.
Which is it?
George W. Bush is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He has said variously that the war in Iraq is part of the greater struggle against terrorists, that we must be resolute, that (via Tony Snow) months of set-backs are the equivalent of Germany's few successful days in the Battle of the Bulge and that we are in a struggle for civilization.
Yet there is no draft. We did not come in sufficient force. We did not plan for post-war. The marginal tax rate at the top bracket and the capital gains taxe are not in the 90+ percentiles as they were in World War II. Important supplies like gas, tires, meat, flour, etc. are not being rationed. And now he says:
Yes, you see -- you see it on TV, and that's the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there's also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people.... Admittedly, it seems like a decade ago. I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is -- my point is, there's a strong will for democracy.
Said so right there on the TeeVee. He "likes to tell people." Now we all know what our favorite Sergeant Major has to say about that and it's hard to imagine how our armed forces would react favorably to this statement from the CIC. They've been over-extended and over-deployed, which squares up with this being really, really important, but under-equipped and under-appreciated as veterans, which aligns with this thing being even less than a historical footnote. Our lives are so much at stake that we torture prisoners. But the war is so unimportant we had no plan for handling them.
You simply can't have it both ways. It can't be everything and nothing. It can't be pointless and crucial (in both senses). You can't "go to war with the army you have" if you need something bigger.
This seems obvious to me but I haven't seen anyone put it exactly this way yet.
The Commander In Chief has effectively doomed our effort in Iraq if it ever had a chance. You can't be in charge and have it both ways.
You just can't. Whatever hope there was just ended.
Now it's just a matter of time.