More Obfuscation on Iraq

I caught a piece of your radio address yesterday, Bush--the bit where you confessed, piously, to grieving for every (American, I presume) life lost in Iraq, and mourning with those who have lost their loved ones there. A quick nod, I suppose, for PR purposes, in the direction of Cindy Sheehan. I heard also that you sped past her little demonstration in your tinted-glass SUV limo, on your way to a Republican fundraiser. Meanwhile, the crowd of war protesters gathers to support her--along with a growing crowd of your supporters, Bush. This promises to be a media event that you'll live to regret. How hard would it have been to find some way to defuse it? A little private tea party with Cindy? Even that, though, may not have done the trick. This gutsy woman is mad as hell, and she has you by the proverbial short and curlies on this one, Bush. And during your vacation, too! Annoying, huh?

At the same time, the obfuscating tactics re: Iraq continue. "Iraqis are taking control of their country," you announce with glowing rhetoric in your Saturday address: "building a free nation that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself. And we're helping Iraqis succeed." What bullshit! On MSNBC online, a "senior official involved in policy since 2003" seemed less rosy in his expectations: "What we expected to achieve," he said, "was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground. We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning." Seems to me, Bush, that you're still lost in the unreality part.

Oh, and I should note, to be fair: CBS news did run, a day late and in the space of about ten seconds, a reference to that interview with Israeli television. And the Los Angeles Times ran a piece about it on page 12 of today's edition--also noting that German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder hastened to disagree with you. My New York Times has not yet been delivered this morning. But I can't help wondering how the BBC got this a day before the American media. Maybe it's the time difference. Do you think so, Bush?