Yesterday, embattled president George W. Bush released a document entitled "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq". Read it [here].
As Waldo Jaquith has been pointing out for months, the addle-brained Bush policy in Iraq seems to echo the diabolical plans of SouthPark's Underpants Gnomes:
1. Invade Iraq.
2. ????
3. Democracy!
You'd think that by releasing something with a big title like "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq", the Bush Administration would actually incorporate some kind of "Strategy for Victory" in the document. You'd think they would have come up with some kind of "Strategy for Victory" before engineering the invasion, but who cares about outcomes when you need to win elections.
Unfortunately, this document doesn't offer anything new. It's just the same old "stay the ($1M/minute, 2 soldiers killed/day) course". Here's what Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has to say about the document:
Just two weeks ago, a bipartisan majority of the United States Senate registered a vote of no confidence in the president's current policy in Iraq. Democrats and Republicans called on the president to change course and release a strategy for success in Iraq with specific benchmarks by which the progress could be measured. Today, President Bush failed to meet this call. Instead, he recycled his tired rhetoric of `stay the course' and once again missed an opportunity to lay out a real strategy for success in Iraq that will bring our troops safely home.After nearly 1,000 days of war in Iraq, our troops, their families, and the American people deserve more than just a Bush-Cheney public relations campaign. They deserve a clear strategy with military, economic and political measures to be met in order to successfully complete our mission. The president's continued refusal to provide that plan does nothing to support our troops or their families. Simply staying the course is no longer an option, we must change the course. We can do better.
So if there's nothing new in Mr. Bush's "new" plan, why release it? Well, obviously to shut up anyone who says that the Bush Administration doesn't have a plan for "Victory in Iraq". Well, I'll say it: the Bush Administration has NO PLAN for victory in Iraq. None.
It's time that we, as a nation, demand real leadership and real direction. PR and Propaganda don't work when nearly 60% of the population doesn't trust you, Mr. President.
The Emperor has no underpants.