With the anticipation of a long awaited prince for a barren throne, the Baker-Hamilton Commission aka Iraq Study Group is due to release its much debated report on Wednesday. Much ink has been used analyzing whether this will precipitate change in the White Houses war policy or just provide a convenient stalling to do avoid immediate action. Inherently, an independent commissions report cannot be activated quickly and given the nature of this White House to ignore, spin, stall and become invisible when it comes to answers, we should expect no quick action beyond wordsmithing.
Arriving in mailboxes and on newsstands early this week, two national magazines gaze into the tea leaves of our post Nov. 07 political environment. Pres. Bushs National Security Advisor, unaccustomedly grilled by Meet The Press Tim Russert on Sunday about why the Bush43 administration said one thing in public before the election but entirely different things amongst themselves, promised that the Decider would respond within weeks. If Pres. Bush is looking a wee bit weary and peevish these days, its not because hes worried about his offspring. One thing to remember in this season of symbols is that the US has now been at war in Iraq longer than it was in WW2, and we are nearing the dreaded 3,000 mark dead, indelibly linked to the 9/11 loss of life in many minds. The official number of US troops killed in Iraq is now 2892 (with 14 awaiting confirmation) as of yesterday, Dec. 04. White House advisors are in more than seasonal holiday frenzy to set the stage for the opening of Act II, Days of Reckoning, as the performers, last minute rewrites and set designers prepare for the curtain to rise on the 110th Congress after the New Year. The mission, far from being accomplished, as been lost. Whether we are in sync with Shakespeares Mac Beth or Richard III, or Dantes Inferno, only the last of the true believers still sing Springtime in Baghdad. Newsweeks Evan Thomas writes in So Now What, Mr. President?, Persuading Bush to listen - and to change course, even at the margins - will be very difficult. One of the myths that the Bush camp has tried to perpetuate over the years is that the president follows the model, learned as a student at Harvard Business School, of a chief executive who delegates, listens to advice and only then decides. Bush is the 'decider,' as he calls himself, but there is little evidence that he listens to advice that he doesn't want to hear. . . . "The tone of Bush's senior aides, who were interviewed this week by Newsweek, was dismissive, even condescending, toward Baker and the Iraq Study Group. The word from the White House was not entirely Stay the Course, but pretty close. . . . Bush may trim and fiddle here and there, say his advisers, but he is determined to send a signal of unwavering determination -- that he is in charge, and he will not abandon Iraq. . . . "Bush seems determined to play the role of a 21st-century Winston Churchill, steadfast in the West's darkest hour, when many Americans see Bush as the captain on the bridge of the Titanic. But in fact the dire situation in Iraq -- and the reality that there are no magical fixes -- may push the president into listening to Baker and other advisers, if only for a moment, and then maybe with only half an ear. At least that is what Baker, according to those who know him, is hoping and maneuvering for -- a chance to get his foot in the door of the Oval Office, to make one last pass at getting Bush to make an attempt at true diplomacy in the Middle East." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16013640/site/newsweek/ <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16013640/site/newsweek/> Times Michael Duffy put it this way in Can Bush Find An Exit?: "George Bush has a history of long-overdue U-turns. He waited until he woke up, hungover, one morning at age 40 before giving up booze cold. He fought the idea of a homeland-security agency for eight months after 9/11 and then scampered aboard and called it his idea. He dumped Donald Rumsfeld last month as defense secretary, although lawmakers and even some generals had been calling for his head since 2005. Bush's biggest reversals usually come after months -- even years -- of stubborn resistance, when just about everyone has given up on his having any second thoughts at all. That's always been the point: he's a decider, he says, and deciders aren't supposed to undecide. When he does have to Kojak the car and head down the street in the opposite direction, he takes a little extra time getting it done. "But Bush has never had to pull off a U-turn like the one he is contemplating now: to give up on his dream of turning Babylon into an oasis of freedom and democracy and instead begin a staged withdrawal from Iraq, rewrite the mission of the 150,000 U.S. troops there as they begin to draw down, and launch a diplomatic Olympics across the Middle East and between Israel and the Palestinians. Even calling all that a reversal is a misnomer; it would be more like a personality transplant. "So it may take the 43rd president a little more time than it normally does to execute this particular U-turn. And he will do all he can to make it look more like a lane change. But sometime in the next month or so, Bush will begin the biggest foreign policy course correction of his presidency. No matter what else may get stapled onto it, the maneuver will be based on the agreement reached by the bipartisan commission led by former Secretary of State James Baker III and former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton." http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1565529,00.html <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1565529,00.html> There is of course, much more to this story, and the third act is only in draft form. In the meantime, the blood and treasury of many are spent, in a futile, unnecessary tragedy, while this non-hero fiddles. In yet another indication of the self-enclosed bubble that is the Bush43 presidency, the Decider gave his first post Nov. 7 interview to a trusted PR enabler, Brit Hume on Fox News, safety first. One gets the feeling this is a fragile, terminally ill administration, close to the end. One can only hope for clarity and courage in the present, with less self-absorbed concentration on future legacy about the past. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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