My Right Gemini Twin on Bush's Speech

Could it be our little Dubya is growing up? He is not a mature adult yet, but he has taken a massive step and I am quite proud of our little guy. I mean he is still deep in denial about how we got to where we are today in Iraq, but he is recognizing the depth of our failures thus far and his responsibility for those failures. Little steps forward are better than giant leaps backwards I believe. Tonight’s speech has given me a tiny ray of hope in an otherwise dim outlook.

“Al Qaeda terrorists and Sunni insurgents recognized the mortal danger that Iraq’s elections posed for their cause. And they responded with outrageous acts of murder aimed at innocent Iraqis.”

Al Qaeda has very little to do with the trouble in Iraq today. The Sunni/ Shiite war has a very long history that goes back much further than our overthrowing of Saddam. It is a conflict that even predates the war between Sunni ran Iraq and Shiite ran Iran in the 80’s. It is a religious war of ideology much like the Catholic/ Protestant war that wrecked havoc on England for so long. It saddens me that Bush still insists that Iraq has anything to do with the war on terror, but like I said, at least he is getting better.

“The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people – and it is unacceptable to me… where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me. “

It has taken President Bush six long years to admit error, but he finally has and that does count for something with me. It is a long way from his mocking the hunt for WMD’s and his insistence that we were winning in Iraq. The speech tonight could possibly signal the birth of a new George Bush; one that is humbled before the American people. It is possible that he really did get the message sent to him in November. His past history does not fill me with much hope, but the speech tonight does.

“In keeping with the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, we will increase the embedding of American advisers in Iraqi Army units – and partner a Coalition brigade with every Iraqi Army division. We will help the Iraqis build a larger and better-equipped Army – and we will accelerate the training of Iraqi forces... We will give our commanders and civilians greater flexibility to spend funds for economic assistance. We will double the number of Provincial Reconstruction Teams.”

This is a very different plan than the one we have failed under for the past three years. It almost seems like President Bush has recognized it was his desire to run the war that caused most of the problems and has finally decided to let those who understand war run it. Most of the items he is covering in this new plan are actually things requested of him and denied long ago. This is not so much his plan as his acknowledging his plan sucked in the first place, but nothing was going to change until he realized his failures.

The plan is far from perfect and, to be honest, I still wish we had never gone in the first place, but wishes are for wells. The reality is that we are there. We have two choices before us and those are leave or stay. I would prefer we leave, but that is not going to happen so at least those with experience are going to be running it now. There is hope for success now whatever that means.

I am trying to be optimistic right now. I did not watch the speech, but read the text online. I may be giving the words written for him more credit than his reading them deserved. I may wake up tomorrow pissed off at the entire plan, but then I will read this and say “I am an idiot” and not know if I mean when I wrote this or when I read it.