Bush faces credibility issues
With less than 18 months left in the White House, President Bush is learning the cold hard truth about it being ‘lonely at the top.’??Beset by problems foreign and domestic, he seems to have lost his ‘bully pulpit’ for leading the nation.??
President Bush’s hero, Ronald Reagan, was nicknamed ‘The Great Communicator’ and rightly so.??His ability to rally the nation and the free world during the Cold War was one of his many strengths.??The inability of President Bush to do so lately in the war on terror is one of his biggest weaknesses.
The war in Iraq exemplifies the president’s dilemma.??He seems unable to persuade the nation that our vital interests there are sufficiently threatened to justify the costs in blood and treasure already expended.??As casualties and costs continue to rise, his credibility on the war continues to fall.
Sometimes, President Bush is his own worst enemy in stating and making the case for continuing to fight in Iraq.??For example, when he asserts that al-Qaida terrorists in Iraq are ‘the same guys who attacked us on 9/11,’ he leaves himself wide open for criticism and counter-attacks from all directions.??I think he means al-Qaida in Iraq and al-Qaida elsewhere, including the USA, are kindred spirits.?? They share a common hatred and common goals, including destruction of all infidels who do not share their perverted views on religion and society.
If President Bush means what I think he means, he is right on the mark.??However, his inability to say what he means, clearly and consistently, has become his Achille’s heel.??In Texas lingo, he is hog-tied and vulnerable to being hornswoggled by his detractors.
Unfortunately for President Bush, his list of detractors is growing daily ‘ and not just among Democrats who have their eyes on the White House prize in 2008.??For example, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is callously counting on the war in Iraq to increase the number of Democrats in Congress in 2008.??Even more ominous for President Bush is the continuing erosion of Republican support for the war in both houses of Congress.
President Bush recently got a good report on the results of his colonoscopy. Now he needs some good reports from Iraq.??The mother of all reports will come in mid-September when General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker present their comprehensive assessments of military and political conditions in??Iraq. If the report is favorable, militarily and politically, the president’s surge strategy will appear to be working.??
However, even if the September report is favorable militarily, but unfavorable politically, calls for U.S. troop withdrawals are sure to escalate. After all, General Petraeus and other high-ranking military officers, active and retired, have often said the military part of the problem is a relatively small factor in the overall threat to Iraq’s destiny.
If Iraqi political leaders can’t or won’t put national survival over sectarian and ethnic interests, whatever we do militarily will be akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.??
Thomas B. Vaughn is an instructor at Motlow College and co-host of the radio show ‘Viewpoints,’ which airs on WCPI 91.3 FM.