I can't find a working link to it online yet but anyone who's interested in the future of the world and the Iraq War ought to watch the press conference that George W. Bush held this morning. He was uncommonly flustered and defensive, giving nervous and desperate answers to what were mostly softball queries. I've asked tougher questions on Cartoon Voice panels. Throughout, Bush reminded me of a losing gambler in denial…the kind who says, "If I keep using my system, eventually the cards have to go my way." Well, no, they don't.
Earlier, I quoted the line that suggested we'll be in Iraq as long as he's in office. As a couple of you noted in e-mail, that's the kind of defeatist attitude that Republicans label "doom and gloom" when it comes out of a Democratic mouth. One of those correspondents, Tom Nawrocki, wrote me…
What's amazing about Bush's pledge to stay in Iraq for the remainder of his presidency is that he seems to be ruling out any possibility that we could actually win the war there over the rest of his term. Now I have no idea what it would mean to "win," but I'm surprised (and rather alarmed) that Bush doesn't have any sort of plan to win, either. He seems content to simply fight and fight and fight in perpetuity.
Yeah. It must be tough to still be at least an official supporter of this man. I have a theory that around half of those who claim they support Bush are inwardly revulsed when they have to say that. In any case, backing the guy seems to require that you maintain the jury is still out as to whether there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11…and then along comes Bush, in an appearance like the one this morning, saying that there was no link and no one in his administration ever said there was. Or you'd like to suggest that some reports of ancient, non-working weapons of minor destruction over there are proof that Bush didn't lie, nor was he wrong to say that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction. And then you have Bush sawing the legs off your position, admitting this morning that there were no WMD. All that plus the man's stammering and inability to state his position in clear, declarative sentences must have his believers cringing. He sure isn't making their job easy.