Three months ago the Bush administration's Iraqi policy seemed disorganized and aimlessly adrift. Today, it is clear that the administration has been following a carefully prepared plan of action all along which has allowed them to outmaneuver their opposition and has all but assured them of ultimate victory (on the political battlefield at the least). GW's speech last night was just the latest example of Bush deftly knocking another barrier to war aside.
When the administration first started to turn up the rhetoric at the beginning of the summer they made almost no mention of the U.N., congressional approval, or the need to make the case to the American public. The message seemed to be "we can go to war if and when we want to and we don't have to explain why". This brought those who opposed military action out into the open and they began laying down a gauntlet of demands that the administration would have to meet before they could support a war. They acknowledged that Iraq was a problem but before the U.S. could act specific conditions must be satisfied:
We would have to get our allies involved, we would have to go through the U.N., Congress would have to debate the matter and approve a resolution supporting the president, and Bush would have to convince the American people that war was the only option.
In reality the opposition never had any intention of supporting the Bush administration. The conditions they had set out were designed as road blocks that they were sure the administration either would or could not overcome. They had begun to believe the hype that Bush was a vigilante cowboy who was determined to act unilaterally and would never allow the U.N. or the Congress to interfere with his vendetta against Saddam. Not for the first time did his opposition grossly underestimate him. Bush allowed the opponents of the war to huff and puff for a while and then he systematically began to kick the legs out from under their arguments.
It started with the diplomatic work behind the scenes that secured support for military action from Britain, Turkey, Kuwait, Canada, Qatar, and even a shaky endorsement from the Saudis. Next he went to the U.N. and presented his case against Iraq to the world body. While it still is not clear whether the U.S. will get the type of resolution from the Security Council that Bush desires, the fact that he sought approval from the U.N. allows him to at least say that he tried. That will probably satisfy the majority of Americans who hold no special love for Khofi's boys anyway.
The U.S. Congress has been debating the war for the last few weeks and even Daschle's crying about "politicizing the war" (isn't a debate political by its very definition?) hasn't dampened the chances for successful passage in both the House and Senate of a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq. Last night the President clearly and concisely laid out the reasons that he feels that war is necessary and at the same time addressed nearly all the coherent arguments against war, explaining the flaws in each of them. The speech was the capstone to what has been a remarkable couple of months of Bush appearing to let the opposition dictate the terms of debate while in reality he was forcing them into fixed defensive positions which he has rolled over one by one.
Not bad for a guy now officially hated by Jessica Lange and once described by the Minnesota born star as "such a stupid man". I hope he can still sleep at night.
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