Bush Guarantees US Troops in Iraq into 2009

George “LBJ” Bush is pretty bad with the English language, even in its Texan form. So, it isn’t always a good idea to try to find shades of nuance when he can’t even find the direct object of his mis-conjugated verbs. Be that as it may, in yesterday’s press conference, he was asked if there would be a time when there are no US troops in Iraq. He replied that was the objective and “that will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq.” Mr. Bush is in office until January 20, 2009.

The Bush administration’s stated policy is a rehash of Vietnamization, or as the president puts its, “As Iraqis stand up, America will stand down.” That appears to be the only strategy on the table for some of his opponents as well, while the rest just want out ASAP. Given Mr. Bush’s answer, the world knows that his successor will have US troops in Iraq as part of the force deployment that he or she inherits.

Although Mr. Bush may have been misspoken (it wouldn’t be a unique event), there is a lot of concrete in Iraq that says otherwise. The AP and MSNBC finally picked up a story that has been kicking around for some months, suggesting that there are four bases in Iraq that are too big to be anything but permanent US installations. The base at al-Asad in Iraq’s western desert, for example, has a Burger King and a car dealership (it is not known if the dealer carries US cars – such information is secret).

The president also showed that he still believes his own nonsense. “Part of that [his duty after 9/11 to protect America] meant to make sure that we didn’t allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy, and that’s why I went into Iraq.” Iraq, as the 9/11 Commission and countless others have demonstrated, had no connection at all to the Al Qaeda Murders of September 11, 2001. A politician is never more dangerous than when he starts to believe his own propaganda.

Mr. Bush, though, made his position clear. The US isn’t leaving Iraq on his watch. The victory strategy of which he speaks, therefore, will not succeed until after his presidency. American troops won’t leave until Iraqis are capable of protecting their own country, so by extension, they aren’t going to be ready for at least three more years. At least that will give the guys at al-Asad time to pay off any car note they might have.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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