Bush Delusion Of Iraq Shows Growing Distance From Reality As Iraqi Sham "Elections" Approach
By Sanjay Sharma, Section USB - United States Of Bush
Posted on Thu Jan 27, 2005 at 03:26:28 AM EST
Half-drunk on power, and half drunk on delusion, USB President Bush imagines that he is planting the flag of liberty in Iraq.
- President Bush's opening statement at his news conference on Wednesday was striking for what it left out: any mention of the 31 Americans who died overnight in the crash of a Marine helicopter in Iraq, the largest number of American deaths in a single incident since the war began.
- Mr. Bush instead focused on his long-term goal of "ending tyranny in our world," and then cast the Iraqi election coming Sunday as part of a march of freedom around the globe. He said that if he had told the reporters in the room a few years before that the Iraqi people would be voting, "you would look at me like some of you still look at me, with a kind of blank expression."
The president's words were part of an aggressive White House communications strategy this week and next to frame the risky Iraqi election - a critical test of his assertion that the country is on the path to stability - in the best possible light.
The goal, a Bush adviser said, was not only to lower expectations but to avoid any definition of success.
- When the president was asked to define what a "credible" turnout in Iraq would be, he quickly side-stepped, saying only, "The fact they're voting in itself is successful."
Whom is this man and his goons trying to fool? An election where the candidates can't declare their names or campaign. An election where the polling booths will not be announced till 24 hours before the ballotting is due? THAT is something to bady around proudly - guess there should be a sticker across his lips - "Mission Accomplished."
On Iraq policy, Mr. Bush has sought this week to rise above the daily bad news - insurgents vowed this week to cut off the heads of Iraqis and their children if voters went to the polls - and to put a positive stamp on an election that could be disrupted by insurgent attacks on Sunday and set the tone for the next four years.
