Here is part of a speech Bush made today before the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. He lays out his thinking on what we are doing in Iraq. Check it out.
In 2005 — I want you to remember — in 2005, the Iraqi people held three national elections. Oh, it seems like a decade ago, doesn’t it? And yet in the march of history, it’s not all that long ago that the Iraqi people showed up at the election box, after having lived under the thumb of a brutal and murderous tyrant, to express their will about the future of their country. They chose a transitional government. They adopted the most progressive, democratic constitution in the Arab world. And then they elected a government underneath that constitution. Despite the endless threats from killers, nearly 12 million Iraqi citizens came out to vote, in a show of hope and solidarity that the United States should never forget.
A thinking enemy watched all this. See, there are some who can’t stand the thought of a free society emerging in their midst. And this enemy escalated attacks. Al Qaeda is very active in Iraq. And they and other Sunni extremists blew up one of the most sacred places in Shia Islam, the Golden Mosque of Samarra. Why did they do that? They did that to provoke retaliation. They did that to cause people to take up — arm themselves. And they succeeded. Radical Shia elements, some of whom have received support from Iran, increased their support of death squads, and then the situation began to escalate.
And so I had a choice to make. Last fall, I looked at the facts, I consulted with a lot of folks in Congress, and our military commanders. And my choice really boiled down to this: Do we withdraw our troops and let violence spiral out of control, let this young democracy fail, or do I send reinforcements to help the Iraqis quell the violence and secure their capital? In other words, do we give them breathing space to get on the path of reconciliation so that this young democracy could survive?
Well, I weighed the options, and the military commanders and I concluded that the consequences of withdrawal would be disastrous for the United States of America. And let me tell you why. If we were to step back from Baghdad before it was more secure, before the government could secure its own capital, it would leave a security vacuum. And into that vacuum could quickly come Sunni and Shia extremists, bolstered by outside forces. A contagion of violence could spill out across the country, and in time, the violence of these emboldened extremists could affect the entire region. The terrorists could emerge from chaos — see, they benefit when the situation is chaotic — with new safe havens to replace the one they had lost in Afghanistan.
There’s no doubt in my mind that their intention is to try to strike us again, and they need the resources and the safe haven to do so. If we were to abandon this young democracy to chaos, it would embolden these extremists. It would enable them to be able to recruit more. It would give them new resources from which to plot and plan. I believe the consequences of failure in Iraq affect the security of the United States of America, and that’s why I made the decision I made. (Applause.)
And so instead of retreating, we reinforced — troops led by a capable commander named General David Petraeus.
I don’t know what is more frightening…the prospect that Bush actually believes his own rhetoric or the prospect that he doesn’t. He is essentially saying, “I screwed things up so badly in Iraq that we cannot afford to leave.”
I keep saying that no country has ever launched a war of aggression, lost that war, and let the architects of the war stick around to deal with the aftermath. Bush seems to understand this. He knows his political survival depends on a continuation of the war in Iraq. Once we agree it is lost, we will also agree that Bush has no more utility and is, in fact, an insurmountable liability. The vote to end the war is also, although only implicitly, a vote to impeach the President and Vice-President. The two issues really are logically intertwined to such a degree that they will flow together, somewhat inextricably. Bush needs this war. As long as he has the war to cheerlead, he is relevant. Once the war is declared lost, he becomes pointless and belongs in the refuse of history.
The security vacuum he speaks of is real. And we cannot afford to have Bush and Cheney overseeing our withdrawal. No way.
