At Last, Bush Admits the 'Dreadful Reality' of Iraq

U.S. President George Bush announced on Oct. 21 after a 90-minute White House meeting with high-ranking generals that he would undertake all needed adjustments in tactics to get Iraq’s spiraling violence under control. In the presence of his war cabinet, he also frankly acknowledged his predicament with regard to the Iraq quagmire, and he fully articulated the dreadful reality that he had intentionally concealed from his people and the world.

This exceptional meeting for Bush, who normally relaxes on weekends, coincides with the publication of a Newsweek magazine opinion poll that says nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) believe that the United States has failed to stabilize the security situation and establish democracy in Iraq. Every political, military and media indicator affirms that Bush’s difficulties in Iraq will only get worse, such that with every new day, American public criticism of the administration snowballs over the U.S. Army’s entanglement in the invasion disaster.

Despite their recalcitrance and arrogance, the hell of Iraq now casts a shadow on the faces of Bush and the hawks of his administration, and their statements now clearly betray their frustration and despair. It is sufficient to see what U.S. State Department spokesman for the Near East, Alberto Fernandez, said to Al-Jazeera TV. Fernandez told an interviewer that his country has demonstrated “arrogance and stupidity” in Iraq, and he called for the United States to show more humility in its strategy, which has been riddled with so many mistakes. Perhaps this is why Washington has decided not to raise objections to entering talks with resistance groups in a bid to lessen the violence.

American forces now in Iraq are in deplorable circumstances without any control of the situation, and U.S. soldiers wait impatiently for the moment of escape from the hell of “The Second Vietnam,” as everything we know confirms that the imbroglio is only getting worse. Because there are no excuses left for the U.S. administration to use to justify keeping its forces in Iraq, and since Washington refuses to set aside its stubbornness and obstinacy, the immediate future only promises to add to the suffering and funeral corteges of the murdered.

In invading Iraq, America did not win a war nor did it achieve peace. Rather, it lost both, and is now looking for any way out of the terrible predicament it has put itself in. Despite the overwhelming power of its soldiers, America is desperate to find way to peace while at the same time saving face.

Now that its dreams and its deceptive slogans about bringing security, freedom and democracy to Iraq have evaporated, it is clear that just the opposite has occurred.

America’s invasion has instead afflicted Iraq with an even tougher and crueler oppression than before, only this time the instruments of tyranny are in foreign hands.