Everybody Hates Bush

Thirty-seven percent, thirty-seven percent , that's the number currently most floated among the cable talkning heads in regards to the presidents approval rating. Sadly this is mostly the presidents own fault, not only is the public largely against the implementation of nearly any aspect of his domestic program (such as it is), but they have turned against him on the issues that are usually Republican bread-and-butter. Security, he dosen't seem to be doing much about it (read: boarders). Fiscal discipline, I seem to remember our party standing for that at some point. Finally and most importantly the war in Iraq. Now the lack of any coherent, reasonable or practical policy on this front on the part of the Democrates is a matter for a different column, but the presidents chief failure on this front has to do with a lesson his father learned from Colin Powell, in short it goes as followes:

Introductory Geo-Politics and Warfare 101:

Lesson # 1: So you want to 'fix' a broken country:

Question: How do you avoid getting involved in an annoying 'Vietnam-style' quagmire?

Answer: Know what your goals are.

During the initial planning stages for the first Gulf War back in the early 1990's, President George H. W. Bush was informed by then joint-chiefs chairmen Colin Powell that the key to avoiding another 'Vietnam' in Iraq was to have a clear goal and basic conception of what victory should look like. In Vietnam we didn't know what vicotry meant, was it to consist of a unified and democratic Vietnam? A stable boarder? A permanent U.S. military presnece in South Vietnam? This was never made clear.

Now in the first Gulf War it was decided fairly early on what victory would mean and look like. It would consist of 1.) A free and liberated Kuwait, and 2.) A greatly diminished war-making capacity on the part of Iraq. This last goal ended-up taking the form of containment and is why we didn't push on to Baghdad. So when all of these goals were meet we called it good and most of our troops got to go home, though seem were sent to the territory of our relatively pro-American allies in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

But what is victory suppose to look like now, for this war? What consitutes a 'free and stable Iraq'? How many native troops need to be trained? How many elections need to be held? The president needs to tell us these things. If he dosen't we can't know waht we are working towards, and are thusly denied anything to potentially 'rally-around'. So the president needs to give another speech, a prime-time one complete with charts and graphs to outline to us, the American people what this victory is suppose tolook like and how we are going to get there. Staying the course is fine, but if we don't know where we are going at some point we are going to get tired and want to turn around and go home. That in the long run, the prospect of not reaching a worth while destination in Iraq is a bad thing all around.