December 6, 2006
Upon returning home…
My head finally seems to be coming back around to the Midwest’s central time zone now that I’ve returned from my trip to the Middle East which seems to be the center of the world’s attention. OK, sure the British media is rightfully caught up with the investigation into the radioactive murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, but everyone else is talking about the happenings in Lebanon, the cessation of happenings in Israel and the discussion in DC about the happenings in Iraq.
Israel is full of thoughts, perspectives, notions and beliefs about how to resolve their occupation of the Palestinians. No one seems to have solution that makes everyone or really anyone happen, but everyone has their opinion on things. While people at home still seem amazed that it never for a moment felt unsafe, (even the customs agent at the airport asked me if I “saw anything blow up over there?”) there was actually a truce declared to ease tensions with the Palestinians in Gaza and it did curtail if not eliminate the rocket fire and military incursions.
When I arrived in Israel, the focus of local news was split between a notorious escaped criminal and the impact of daily Palestinian rockets on the Israeli town of Sderot. The truce was obviously big, but then attention was rerouted north as Lebanon’s Hezbolla began protests in an effort to bring down the government and wrest control of the country. After fighting a war with the militant Shiite faction this summer, Israel’s media and officials were naturally wary of anything that might increase their recent enemy’s base of power.
Our Fine President and his top people were all in the region while I was over there. He met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, while Cheney caught up with our Saudi friends and Condi Rice spent a bit of time where I was. According to reports, none of their missions were all that successful and the news from the region just seems to get worse as the days go on.
First there was the memo from recent Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that admits Iraq ain’t going quite how they’d dreamed it and maybe after three years it’s time to change our focus. Reports on this memo paint it as a document that focuses on how to change perceptions and the image of the mission in Iraq so as to escape without facing the reality that things there were thoroughly and repeatedly botched.
Next Rumsfeld’s replacement Robert Gates tells congress that we’re not winning the war in Iraq. Sure he backpedaled a bit by later adding that we’re not losing either, but that comment certainly doesn’t match up well with Our Fine President’s consistently optimistic assessment of the war.
Despite the indecisive ending to his statement, Gates’ more sober assessment of things speaks well for him. He hasn’t yet shown the ability to speak the unvarnished truth about the mess over in Iraq, but any little bit of reality that can creep into the picture Our Fine President sees in his war is a step in the right direction.
Of course the most damning news to hit the White House this week is the raw and sober assessment of the situation in Iraq laid out by the Iraq Study Group’s report. The report basically said none of the administration’s policies are working and time is running out for us to escape before the whole region goes ka-blammo.
“The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. There is no path that can guarantee success, but the prospects can be improved.”
The bi-partisan commission that generated the report is out in force talking about their assessment which includes the no-surprising-but-disappointing revelation that the U.S. military is drastically under-reporting the level of violence in the country. “Good policy is difficult to make when information is systematically collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy with policy goals,” the report states.
Of course this is just one more example of how Our Fine President and his crew have continually worked to keep everything on message and never admit when one thing or everything goes exactly against how they thought it would. They’ve been a wind up toy endlessly walking into the same wall, all the while asserting that the wall will go away if they keep walking at it just a little bit longer.
So what does Our Fine President have to say about this report…
“It is a report that brings some really very interesting proposals, and we will take every proposal seriously and we will act in a timely fashion.”
The last time he received a bi-partisan report with numerous recommendation for how to turn around his failed policies and help our nation reach it’s goals was two years ago, and he never really did take all of the 9/11 Commission’s report’s advice. I’ve only read the excerpts of this new report so far, but it seems like it’s another dose of reality for a man who’d prefer to see things his way. It’s too bad he’s so good at looking beyond the way things are to see them in his own image.