A Doctrine Of Taking Credit

And Ignoring Failure

As things continue to go badly in the Iraq Occupation with civilians dying daily and many U.S. Forces also losing their lives, Bush needs to look elsewhere to find things for which he can pat himself on the back.

So, he is looking to the recent changes in Lebanon, among other places, to take credit for the apparent shifts toward some sort of freedom. See, the Bush team will say, we liberated Iraq and freedom is spreading! Problem is, the places where change may be taking hold are the places Bush has not been involved, diplomatically or militarily. (Let's remember, it was a U.N resolution back in September demanding Syria's withdrawl.)

Whether the other happenings will foster real change has yet to be seen, but the credit, if there is any, goes to the brave citizens of those countries that had the courage to speak up or protest or work to change their countries from within. The credit does not belong to Bush.

More and more, the evidence shows that, given time, the Iraqi people would likely have attempted their own transition. With weapons inspectors inside Iraq, and "No-fly" zones putting the squeeze on Saddam, he could not have stayed in power forever. In the view of many Mideast analysts, change was inevitable. In what ways, and how fast, will now never be known. But like the other countries around the world that are slowly finding their own way, it certainly could have happened with much less bloodshed.

There are really only two examples of the Bush Doctrine in the world and those are Afghanistan and Iraq. And neither of those has gone all that well. If Iraq does eventually form some sort of democracy it will have come at a very heavy price: Thousands of U.S. casualties, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed or maimed.

We should remember also that "spreading freedom" was not the justification for our initial invasion of Iraq. George Bush spoke only of weapons of mass destruction and "getting them before they get us".

Bush deceived, lied, and misled the world and many, many people have been killed as a result. Pointing out successful and relatively peaceful changes in other countries cannot change that reality.

It is shameful that the Bush administration moves to take credit for successes that are not their own while denying the tragedy and failure that can be seen daily in the body counts that started when Bush began the bombing.