Another Speech; Another Captive Audience

There ought to be a limit on how many speeches a US president can make to military audiences. Especially if he’s trying to sell an unpopular war. And the Iraq War is unpopular. Not only with most Americans, but with practically all Iraqis. Which is totally understandable, since, while the US has lost over 2,100 KIAs in the last two and a half years, the number of Iraqi dead is perhaps ten times that number. As it stands now, Iraqis of all ethnic, tribal and religious groups are continually targeted by the insurgency. Not to mention the fear many Iraqis feel, of being killed or injured in US anti-insurgency offensives. “Collateral damage,” it’s called.

Almost all Iraqis want the US to get out of Iraq the soonest. Their reasoning being  that the insurgency is going to continue as long as the US remains in Iraq, with ordinary Iraqis being among the main targets.

Mr Bush, of course, has no intention of withdrawing from Iraq. This war is unpopular with many Americans, so, in order to remedy the situation, he's been going around making speeches to captive audiences, mostly military personnel. Bush seems to feel that all he has to do is give enough speeches telling Americans how wonderfully well things are going in Iraq, and suddenly the real world will comport with his fantasies.  Things will turn around and Americans will start supporting his policies. 

A speech given to the midshipmen at Annapolis, Maryland, the other day, is a pretty good example of Bush’s thinking. In the Annapolis speech, he says us that American problems in Iraq are due to (1) rejectionists, (2) Saddamists and (3) terrorists. Rejectionists are Sunnis. Saddamists are followers of Saddam Hussein. The terrorists are everyone else. All these groups arm roadside bombs, drive bomb-laden trucks into buildings and in general try to kill and wound as many Iraqi citizens and US soldiers as possible. In order  to put a stop to this kind of thing, says Mr Bush , the US must stay the course  in Iraq.

Mr Bush thinks that playing a numbers game will help dredge up public support for the war.    There’s “120 Iraqi army and police combat battalions”.  There’s “80 battalions” fighting “side by side” with coalition forces.  Bush says that 30 Iraqi battalions have taken over “major sectors” of the capitol. Over a dozen bases in Iraq have been handed over to the Iraqi government. There are six basic police academies. A national depot has been established north of Baghdad that is responsible for supplying the logistical needs of the 10 divisions of the Iraqi army. Iraqis now have a small air force.  And so on and so on.

It's all little more than stuff and nonsense; spin and propaganda. Rehashed rhetoric we’ve heard before.  Mr Bush believes that mere scalar quantities tell us something  concrete about the peackeeping or war-making quality of the Iraqi police and military.   They don't.

The reality, as it reported on the ground, by various news sources, is far different from the speechifying.  Mr Bush can spout numbers all he wants,  but the fact is, that  the Iraqi police and military cannot function effectively without US support. The Iraqi army cannot yet stand on its own and must to rely on US logistical and combat support during its operations. The police have divided loyalties and are thought to engage in terrorist acts themselves against the Sunnis.

One disturbing remark in Annapolis  speech (and one we’ve heard before) was the phrase: “decisions about troop levels will be driven by the conditions on the ground in Iraq and the good judgment of our commanders, not by artificial timetables set by politicians in Washington.”

Really? Whatever happened to civilian control of the military?  

The Annapolis speech contained still more repetitious gobbledygook. No “timeline” to withdraw, he told the midshipmen. A timetable would “send a signal” to the terrorists. No withdrawal, he repeated, until “total victory” is achieved. Of course Mr Bush cannot quantify exactly what “total victory” might look like,  so by his own logic, he can have no idea if and when US soldiers might be withdrawn from Iraq, if ever.

Mr Bush ought to come clean with the American people and give his pep-talks  to audiences who are not captive or pre-screened.  People would might stand up and challenge his decisions.

Presidents who confine their public pronouncements about the war to captive audiences, pre-screened, or to military personnel, give the impression that their polices are simply not defensible in the ordinary give and take of the democratic process.

It’s time to accept the fact that the war in Iraq cannot be "won," if at all,  absent a long-term occupation.

This Iraq War, this nightmare created by Neocon theoreticians, is not working,  and ought to be ended right now.

Punditwalla