The Big Speech, Part Deux

Oh, alas and alack, Bush. And golly gee, as your Rumsfeld might have said, before being booted off into the wings. It took you three months to come up with this rehash of old ideas? I've heard some in the media grasping at straws to find something new in what you had to say. Your mea culpa made one headline--but even that pale admission has been made before. Otherwise, what do we have, except more of the same, plus a little bit more. Boiled down to its basics, was your speech any different from that tired old refrain: stay the course? Send in another handful of American troops, but essentially stay the course. Get those Iraqis working on a political solution, but stay the course. Train some more of their military and police. Set benchmarks for effective action. But stay the course. Same old bullshit, Bush--not to make too fine a point of it.

I have to tell you that I haven't heard a single unqualified, positive reaction to your speech last night. Your Rice was her usual prickly self at the Senate hearings this morning--a loyal supporter, if ever there was one. Her idea of diplomacy--and yours, it seems--is to listen to everyone who agrees with you and cast all the rest as enemies and extremists. Which reminds me that there was one new thing, of course, in your new plan for success in Iraq: in direct contradiction to one of the major recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton report, you made it clear that there would be no talking to Iran or Syria; instead, you actually threatened both these countires with action--presumably military--to thwart their intervention in our own military interests in Iraq.

Where did this idea come from, Bush? That you refuse to talk to those with whom you disagree--even those who hate you--unless they previously capitulate to your demands? It's an idea that springs naturally from the unquestioning belief that everything we do ourselves is good and right. To judge by your actions and your words, that seems to be what you seriously believe. I noticed that, at the end of your speech, you were unable to resist another appeal to that Almighty One who whispers in your ear. Something else that's new! He's no longer the Higher Father but the "Author of Liberty," whom you called upon, in your final words, to guide us. To which I say, in plainer speech, Bush, than yours: if this is your "new way forward" in this disaster, then God help us all.