Is Bush Already Looking To The History Books Overseas?
by Steve Soto
Late Saturday night seems like a good time to trot out another edition of "Worst...President...Ever" theater. In tonight's edition, we take up the issue of whether or not Bush cares about history and polls when it comes to his foreign policy. To wit, is the conventional wisdom still operative that Bush is a rigid, stubborn, inept dickhead? Or is it possible that recent humiliations, tanking poll numbers, new medications, and a concern that he'll go down in history as a failure prompting Skippy to change course? Chew on this and let me know what you think.
You’ll recall that in one of Woodward’s posterior-smacking books, Bush claimed that he didn’t really care how history would treat him years from now, as he would be dead by then. Yet despite this "what a moronic asshole" comment, rest assured that Bush will be just as concerned as other second-term presidents with buffing up his record. Case in point will be overseas, where Bush is in much more control of events that he will be here at home, where the GOP's dissolving agenda will hem him in until the next round of indictments from Patrick Fitzgerald render Bush a political eunuch. And there are two examples brewing that will show you how much Bush wants to save his political legacy and doesn’t care any longer if his agenda clashes with Dick Cheney’s worldview.
When Bush says an early withdrawal from Iraq would be a “recipe for disaster”, this is nothing more than the typical “never admit a mistake” pruneface from this man. There will be a significant troop withdrawal undertaken after the December 15 elections, regardless of how they turn out. The White House will find some new way to spin the withdrawal as being consistent with Bush’s obligation to see things through until stabilization is achieved. If a significant number of forces aren't withdrawn between now and the 2006 elections, the GOP will lose one or both houses of Congress.
And losing control of Congress would mean that Bush failed to fulfill the political realignment that he and Rove boasted they would achieve, and which their corporate checkwriters expected. In effect, Bush would be a political failure if he lost one or both houses of Congress next year, and if it means pulling 60,000 or more troops out of Iraq for the GOP to have a chance to avert that, so be it. Who cares if the country falls apart afterward? He’ll just blame the Democrats for it anyway. That is the real reason why they are pushing back so hard now against Murtha: they're pissed that he got there before they could, and any subsequent effort by Bush to pull out troops could be portrayed as “me-too” follow-the-leaderism, rather than the actions of a bold and decisive commander in chief.
The second example of where Bush has given the heave-ho to Cheney’s worldview and decided to care more about the history books is Iran. To the surprise of many, Bush has flip-flopped now and has stunned both his EU critics and his hard line foreign policy sycophants by agreeing with Pooty-Poot that it would be OK for the Iranians to enrich uranium in Russian territory. This is the first time that Bush has accepted Iran’s demand for a nuclear program. Bush has flip-flopped in the last months away from a Cheney/Bolton hard line with respect on North Korea and Iran, and now is listening to Condi’s recommendations to cut any deals he can get. There is no doubt that Condi is telling W that he needs to notch some foreign policy successes before he leaves voluntarily or involuntarily from the Oval Office, and with reports surfacing that Bush has put Cheney on ignore and feels let down by his staff, Bush has thrown his lot in with the women and cut himself loose from the hard liners that pulled his strings up until now.
As he morphs into a guy who cares more than he claims about his place in history, Bush will be more compliant and willing to deal overseas. With his presidency relying almost totally now on the ferociousness of his attack machine to keep the critics on their heels, Bush cares more about himself, his place in history, and keeping the GOP in power after 2006 than he will ever care about Iraq or taking out the next targets on Cheney and PNAC’s wish list.