No Exit Marked “Graceful”
December 1, 2006
Now I’m not one to agree with President Bush very often, but he told the God’s honest truth in Jordan when he said, “This business about a graceful exit just simply has no realism to it whatsoever.”
The only exits from Iraq are marked “clumsy,” “embarrassing,” “humiliating,” “bloody,” “bloodier,” and “bloodiest.”
He’s right. It’s absolutely unrealistic to ever expect a graceful exit from Iraq.
There is no exit marked “graceful.”
Instead, they’re marked “clumsy,” “embarrassing,” “humiliating,” “bloody,” “bloodier,” and “bloodiest.”
Bush said, “I’m not going to pull the troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete.”
But what mission is that again?
Would that be finding the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction?
Would that be breaking the invisible link between Saddam and Osama?
Would that be liberating Iraqi women, who were much better off before?
Would that be providing a more secure life for the Iraqi people, who want the U.S. to scram?
Even the fall-back about installing democracy in Iraq seems to be an open question in the Bush Administration, as NSC head Stephen Hadley expressed grave doubts about Prime Minister Maliki just days before Bush met with him.
Bush defended Maliki, for whatever that’s worth.
He called him “the right guy for the job,” just like Brownie was for FEMA.
Or just like he said, “I looked into Putin’s soul.”
What did he find there? A vial of Polonium?
Granted, Bush had little choice but to embrace Maliki (and I hope he didn’t pronounce his name as “My Lackey”) because there is no Saddam without a mustache waiting in the wings who can clean the place up.
Maliki can’t. A new strongman can’t. And Bush can’t.
The situation is hopeless.