Bush on VI Day

15 December 2005 |permalink | email article

President Bushís address on the eve of Iraqís first parliamentary elections reprised his Dec. 1 mantra in Annapolis: ìWe will never back down, we will never give in, and we will never accept anything less than total victory.î

His then reference to VJ Day, when Japan surrendered on the deck of the USS Missouri, set the stage for his muscular rhetoric about victory in Iraq. But in the real world, illusions of victory - VI Day in Iraq - can be as deceptive as the U.S. found out in Vietnam. 

I mean, to use Bushís criteria, how do you determine when a) the terrorists and “Saddamists” can no longer threaten Iraqís democracy; b) Iraqi security forces can provide for the safety of their own citizens; and c) Iraq is no longer a safe haven for terrorists to plot new attacks on the U.S?

His articulation of what constitutes victory is now more somber and nuanced than only weeks ago. The concession of intelligence mistakes, that successful voting wonít make the insurgents give up and the call for ìpatienceî by both Iraqis and Americans will only escalate the U.S. debate about whether the war is already lost ñ more blood, sweat and tears. What are the generals telling Jack Murtha in private?

Bush’s statement that the U.S. ìdid not choose war ñ the choice was Saddam Husseinísî ñ an attempt to counter a strong impression by a majority of Americans that the Iraq invasion was a war of choice, or that senators had as much intelligence information as he did - are blatantly untrue and the administration knows it. 

More compelling to me was how Bush tried to associate the cause for freedom in Iraq with how President Harry Truman successfully planted the seeds of freedom and democracy in Japan after World War II.

It is a terrible analogy. Unlike the fall of Saddam, Hirohito remained on the throne after the war and the Japanese were a peaceful and unified society under the U.S. occupation ñ quite the opposite of the Iraqis, divided since ancient times by tribal, religious and family feuds.

The reaction of Democratic leaders is predictable: Bush has yet to spell out the remaining political, economic and military benchmarks that must be met to claim victory. While correct, the party opposite has failed to articulate a compelling vision of its own ñ how a secular democracy in Iraq, given the clear animosity between the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, can survive and avoid the eventual fate of Yugoslavia.

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