It was a thumpin’ he said. The American people had spoken. He was going to listen. There would be a change in course in Iraq. He was open to all sorts of new ideas. Ideas were being considered in the White House that had never been contemplated before. Rumsfeld was forced out. Gates came in. Gates was his own man. Going to speak his mind. Senators fell all over themselves in their praise. The Iraq Study Group Report had good ideas. Bush would look at them all. He’d listen to all viewpoints.
What happened?
Bush did listen to all sorts of viewpoints. However, any viewpoint that did not mirror his own was rejected. To paraphrase Bush there are a lot of plans and ideas out there but they would lead to defeat. Bush will only endorse plans that lead to victory in Iraq. In other words the Iraq Study Group Report is dead. Except for the recommendation about a surge in troops for a limited time.
There’s an article in the Post today about Bush being stubborn or stalwart. Many of Bush’s defenders say he does listen to other points of view more often then people think.
Bush may be listening but the problem is he doesn’t hear what people are saying.
1 comment:
Your best post yet on this subject.
With Bush so stubbornly determined to ignore the will of the people, one would almost have to wonder why America even bothered to have an election. The solution would seem for Congress to stop him. Maybe it'll mean cutting off funds for Bush's war, or maybe they'll need to do the one thing its new leaders said was not on the agenda and investigate impeachment.
Maybe they won't be able to get past the initial stages, maybe they'll kick his ass back to Texas, but the alternative is to give Bush free reign for "temporary" troop increase that will no doubt last until the new president makes a messy withdrawal. How many people have to die to prop up Bush's ego in the meantime?
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