More Iraq War B.S. From "Our Leader"

I am among those who believe that if President Bush was being realistic about trying to salvage the situation in Iraq, he would be overseas attempting to rally any nation-building help possible at this late date from our allies who have interests in the Middle-East.

Such a move would probably not work, but it would have certain merit that is totally lacking in the president's current approach.

He is instead going around trying to propagandize the hapless American citizenry who have already had their once-good name sullied for decades to come by his rapacious administration's actions in Iraq.

President Bush vowed for the first time yesterday to turn over most of Iraq to newly trained Iraqi troops by the end of this year, setting a specific benchmark as he kicked off a fresh drive to reassure Americans alarmed by the recent burst of sectarian violence...

The president made no commitments about withdrawing U.S. troops, but he repeated his general formula that Americans could come home as Iraqis eventually take over the fight. He also used the speech to urge Iraqis to form a unity government three months after parliamentary elections, and he accused Iran of providing explosives to Shiite militias attacking U.S. forces in Iraq.

The anti-Iran info op has to be worked in at every opportunity.

Cloud-Cuckoo Land is a natural environment for Mister Danger:

How meaningful or achievable the president's new goal is seems uncertain. In the speech, Bush said Iraqi units today have "primary responsibility" over 30,000 square miles of Iraqi territory, an increase of 20,000 square miles since the beginning of the year. As a country of nearly 169,000 square miles, Iraqi forces would need to control about 85,000 square miles to fulfill Bush's target.

What constitutes control, however, depends on the definition, since no Iraqi unit is currently rated capable of operating without U.S. assistance. And vast swaths of Iraq have never been contested by insurgents, meaning they could ultimately be turned over to local forces without directly affecting the conflict.

Bush said 130 Iraqi battalions are participating in the battle with radical guerrillas, with 60 units taking the lead, an increase from 120 battalions and 40 in the lead when he last delivered major speeches on Iraq at the end of 2005. But Democrats pointed out that a Pentagon report last month showed that the number of Iraqi units rated "Level 1," or fully independent of U.S. help, has fallen from one to zero.


Back to the info op, again:

In stark language, he also accused Iran of helping the bomb makers. Just last week, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also accused Iran of dispatching elements of its Revolutionary Guard to conduct unspecified operations.

"Some of the most powerful IEDs we're seeing in Iraq today include components that come from Iran," Bush said. Such actions, along with Iran's nuclear program, he said, "are increasingly isolating Iran, and America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats."

Only a madman is absolutely certain about anything. Case in point:

Bush, who betrays not a millimeter of doubt about his Iraq strategy, long ago supplanted Bob Dole as the most optimistic man in America.

The administration has been showing an aversion to entertaining all types of bad news.

Even after White House officials learned that chief domestic policy adviser Claude Allen was suspected of having sticky fingers at a Target store, they opted to put him in the first lady's box at the State of the Union and had him brief reporters aboard Air Force One...

The audience was selected by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, run by former Republican National Committee official Clifford May, who supports Bush on Iraq. With (George Washington University) students away on spring break, May arranged for a small cheering section of Iraqi expatriates in the front rows.

Tara al-Saray, an Iraqi living in the United States, led several rounds of applause for Bush, then shouted praise at Bush when he finished. "President Bush, for us, is just an angel God sent from heaven," she explained.

It looks like someone missed a few classes in Comparative Religion.