Bush Announces War In Iraq

Today George Bush traveled to Cleveland to introduce his latest, greatest strategy for Iraq:

I want to talk about this war we're in. First of all, I regret I have to tell you we're in war.

This breaking news was followed by his standard laundry list; 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, some Americans just don't get it, purple fingers, the Golden Mosque blew up and it all went to hell from there.  And so the Decider had a tough choice to make.  Send thousands more U.S. troops to be targets in Iraq's civil war, or taking the risk that:

...the violence in the capital would spill out into the countryside.

Well that isn't working out too well, is it?  He got a two-fer.  Over 600 more U.S. deaths and violence spreading to other provinces. But never mind that, because he then got to the real reason for this speech:

...I understand there's a debate, and there ought to be a debate in our democracy, and I welcome it. I welcome a good, honest debate about the consequences of failure, the consequences of success in this war. But I believe that it's in this nation's interest to give the commander a chance to fully implement his operations. And I believe Congress ought to wait for General Petraeus to come back and give his assessment of the strategy that he's putting in place before they make any decisions. That's what the American people expect.  [...]

And that's the way I'm going to play it, as the Commander-in-Chief.

Yes, let's play it.  With the Iraqis having failed to meet the benchmarks Bush optimistically laid out in January, and with  increasingly nervous, yet still pliant Republicans breathing down his neck, it was time for Bush to play for more time.  Less than a month ago, the White House was distancing themselves from the Patraeus report, saying they were concerned:

...that the expectations that seem to be raised is that suddenly in September there -- there may be an expectation the report says, okay, all the problems are solved. No. But what will happen in September is that we will have an opportunity to assess what's going on.

But now we're back to September being the end all of judging how things are going in Iraq.  Now, the White House will take care of those pesky Republicans making noise about listening to their constituents, but the American people just need to cooperate by doing two things; first, stop watching television because seeing things blow up just scares us and weakens our resolve.  Second, we've got to believe like George does:

And I strongly believe it. And I strongly believe we will prevail. And I strongly believe that democracy will trump totalitarianism every time. That's what I believe. And those are the belief systems on which I'm making decisions that I believe will yield the peace.

So once again, Bush ignores that 70% of the American people don't believe it or him.  

And the reponse from Senate Majority Leader Reid to this latest version of stay the course?

Today, the six-month anniversary of the President announcing the escalation, it is clearer than ever that this stay-the-course strategy is failing. Violence has increased inside and outside of Baghdad, Iraqi forces have yet to stand up, and the Iraqi government is making no real progress. It is time Senate Republicans put our nation’s security and the American people’s desires over a stubborn President, and vote for redeployment.

Indeed.  Now let's do something about it.