What's your plan?
So George Bush is out on the stump, campaigning for embattled fellow Republicans, trying to maintain a Republican majority in both houses of Congress. He's come up with a pretty clever little line:
"What's your plan?" he rhetorically asks his audience, challenging Democratic candidates who are not present to offer a plan for winning in Iraq.
"What's your plan?" the audience yells back.
"See, they don't have a plan," Bush says. "Harsh criticism is not a plan for victory. Second guessing is not a strategy."
But this line is nothing more than rhetorical sophistry. If his question were perfectly honest (which is a bit more than we can expect from any politician), he might pose it this way:
I have totally messed up Iraq. I ignored the wisdom that led my father to stop the first Iraq war after 100 hours. In ignoring that wisdom, I found out why my father made that decision. I have created a civil war. I have created a breeding ground of resentment towards America. I have created a training camp for future terrorists. As a result of my messing up, money and lives have been poured down the drain. Wasted. Gone forever.
I don't have a plan for victory, because victory is not possible.
So I respectfully ask my political opponents, do you have a plan? Do you have any good ideas for extracting us from the mess I have created? Because I'm out of ideas.
But George Bush is not honest enough to say this, even though saying something like this might just be the best thing he could possibly do. It might just rally the nations of the world, it might just motivate people of good will, to work to stop the bloodshed and horror that have resulted from Bush's mistake. As a good, pious Christian, surely he knows there is no forgiveness, no atonement, no new life apart from repentence.
But that's not what Bush is saying. He's challenging the Democrats, "What's your plan?"
He might as well be asking, "How do you propose to sweep the water back under the bridge?"
Bush victory plan Republican Democrat election campaign Iraq
"What's your plan?" he rhetorically asks his audience, challenging Democratic candidates who are not present to offer a plan for winning in Iraq.
"What's your plan?" the audience yells back.
"See, they don't have a plan," Bush says. "Harsh criticism is not a plan for victory. Second guessing is not a strategy."
But this line is nothing more than rhetorical sophistry. If his question were perfectly honest (which is a bit more than we can expect from any politician), he might pose it this way:
I have totally messed up Iraq. I ignored the wisdom that led my father to stop the first Iraq war after 100 hours. In ignoring that wisdom, I found out why my father made that decision. I have created a civil war. I have created a breeding ground of resentment towards America. I have created a training camp for future terrorists. As a result of my messing up, money and lives have been poured down the drain. Wasted. Gone forever.
I don't have a plan for victory, because victory is not possible.
So I respectfully ask my political opponents, do you have a plan? Do you have any good ideas for extracting us from the mess I have created? Because I'm out of ideas.
But George Bush is not honest enough to say this, even though saying something like this might just be the best thing he could possibly do. It might just rally the nations of the world, it might just motivate people of good will, to work to stop the bloodshed and horror that have resulted from Bush's mistake. As a good, pious Christian, surely he knows there is no forgiveness, no atonement, no new life apart from repentence.
But that's not what Bush is saying. He's challenging the Democrats, "What's your plan?"
He might as well be asking, "How do you propose to sweep the water back under the bridge?"
Bush victory plan Republican Democrat election campaign Iraq
posted by David Ourisman at 6:30 PM
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