The Real Quagmire - Bush's Mind

A lot of us may not like it but George W. Bush is the de facto leader of the free world. He's also the leader of the Global War Without End on Terror. To varying degrees all western nations recognize these realities and adapt to them. That is, after all, how Canada and other NATO nations found themselves mired in Afghanistan.

There is reason to hope that the Democrats may regain control of the House of Representatives, possibly even win the Senate, in the mid-term elections next month. What that shift would mean is anyone's guess. Americans, it seems, are more in a mood to toss out Republicans than to elect Democrats and the Dems haven't done much to generate enthusiasm. The safest bet is not to expect very much beyond a bunch of congressional hearings to expose Republican corruption, neglect and abuse over the past six years.

George Bush will soldier on regardless. Iraq is simply too dangerous an issue for the Democrats to confront him in any meaningful way. That means we're all going to have to live with this president and his ways until 2008 and just hope his successor will make things right.

Why won't George Bush really change? He won't because he can't. He has a vision that's firmly embedded in his consciousness, an outlook that completely suppresses any analysis, logic or critical thinking. It was on display yesterday when Bush met with some conservative journalists in the Oval Office. Here's an account from the Washington Post:

"One of the more reality-defying aspects of President Bush's position on the war in Iraq is his insistence that we're winning.

"That was a central theme at yesterday's press conference.

"'Absolutely, we're winning,' Bush said. 'As a matter of fact, my view is the only way we lose in Iraq is if we leave before the job is done.'

"With the body counts soaring, the country descending deeper into civil war and the central government consistently unable to assert itself, how can he call this winning?

"The answer: It's becoming increasingly clear that Bush sees the war in Iraq in very simple terms. As he himself said, he believes that the only way to lose is to leave. Therefore anything else is winning -- anything else at all.

"Even if no progress is being made -- even if things are getting worse, rather than better -- simply staying is winning.

"So we're winning."

The U.S. has approximately 140,000 soldiers stuck in Iraq, losing that war. These same troops are desperately needed elsewhere to help with another rapidly failing war: Afghanistan. Top British generals have been pleading to get their contingent out of Iraq and into Afghanistan, telling Tony Blair very bluntly that, if they remain stuck in Iraq, he risks losing two wars, not just one.

However the American army in Iraq is stuck in a quagmire, the one in their president's mind.