The Daily Star,
Lebanon
Bush's Last Chance to Salvage His Reputation
“It's hard for anyone to accept that they have championed a path of folly, least of all the leader of the world's most powerful country. There is no other way, though, for Bush to salvage his presidency.”
EDITORIAL
December 7, 2006
Lebanon - The Daily Star - Original
Article (English) 
The
long-awaited report of the Iraq Study Group is now in the public domain, and
while it offers no sure-fire remedies, it does represent an opportunity to cure
the severe case of denial from which U.S. President George W. Bush's
administration has been suffering. The report amounts to a comprehensive
indictment of American strategy in Iraq and recommends a series of changes,
including a few that directly contradict some of the White House's most dearly
held convictions. It's clear, however, that Washington's approach to Iraq and
the broader Middle East have been a colossal and costly failure. The best
course to take is by no means obvious, but the need to abandon the current one
is precisely that.
As is
frequently the case when an American president nears the end of his time in
office, senior White House officials are working feverishly to burnish the
legacy that their boss will leave behind. Theirs will be an uphill battle,
especially when one considers that the incoming defense secretary, Robert
Gates, has publicly conceded that the centerpiece of Bush's presidency, the war
in Iraq, is not being won. By repeatedly misidentifying individual events as
turning points, Bush and his most trusted advisers have repeated a key error of
Vietnam-era administrations, only to watch helplessly as the situation
continued to deteriorate. Gates has served notice that he has no plans to be a
sycophant who regurgitates the White House's fantasies about how
"well" the war in Iraq is going. What remains to be seen is whether
the man in the Oval Office can be persuaded to discard the policies to which he
has clung for so very long.
The
report contains two key tests of Bush's willingness to face facts. One is a
call to actively press for a resumption of the Palestinian-Israeli peace
process. This will be essential if the United States is to regain any amount of
trust in the Arab and Islamic worlds. The other is a recommendation that
Washington end its self-defeating refusal to engage Damascus and Tehran. This
is the only possible way to stabilize Iraq. If Bush finds either step too
distasteful to take, his legacy will be one of defeat, disaster and delusion.
It is hard
for anyone to accept that they have championed a path of folly, least of all
the leader of the world's most powerful country. There is no other way, though,
for Bush to salvage his presidency. The beauty of democratic systems in general
- and of America's in particular - is a capacity for self-diagnosis. If Bush
fails to take advantage of what is almost certainly his last chance to avail
himself of this happy circumstance, he will richly deserve the scorn of history
that surely awaits him.
VIDEO FROM SYRIA: 'IRAQI RESISTANCE
HAS SHOWN LIMITS OF U.S. HEGEMONY'
SYRIAN TV, SYRIA: Excerpts from an interview with Secretary-General of the Sunni Clerics Association in Iraq, Sheik Hareth Al-Dhari, June 24, 00:04:48, Via MEMRI
"The occupation, the destruction, the killing, and so on only increase the hatred of the Iraqis towards America, the Americans, and the American army. The Iraqis will continue to put up resistance to the American army as long as blood flows in their veins, even if it stays there for decades."
Sheik Hareth Al-Dhari
