OP/ED - Bush's rosy view of region's fate is belied by government reports

[rndmprsn]

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpirq223980355sep22,0,2063768.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlines

more op-ed pieces talking about the iraq mess...wow, this story might get legs (insert huge sarcasm here) so it say bush is running out of iraq generalities/excuses, or at least insomuch as what intelligent people will accept, it says "And he paints a rosy picture because what else can he do?"

indeed...what else can shrub do now?

enjoy...

President George W. Bush spoke at the United Nations yesterday but have no doubt that he was speaking to the American electorate.

In defending his decision to invade Iraq, without the approval of the United Nations Security Council, Bush was rebutting Monday's speech, harshly critical of his war conduct, by his Democratic opponent, John Kerry of Massachusetts. As he did right after Kerry's address, Bush reiterated that the world was better off without Saddam Hussein in power and that Iraq was on its way to becoming a democracy. He minimized the trouble the U.S. military is having in establishing security in Iraq and ignored reports from his own government that there is a significant chance of Iraq devolving into civil war and chaos.

"The advance of freedom always carries a cost," Bush said to the UN yesterday.

Fair enough. But the criticism of Bush doesn't hinge on whether Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator or whether it is good that he is gone. The answer to both is obviously yes.

The question that Kerry raised and Bush can't really answer is whether the Persian Gulf region and the fight against terrorism have been enhanced or hurt by Bush's decision to go to war when he did and in the manner he chose.Indeed, there is plenty of evidence these days that the U.S. invasion of Iraq has made the region less stable and set back the fight against terrorism. And that is because, as Kerry has charged, the Bush administration was not at all prepared for the post-war rebuilding of Iraq or, for that matter, to even bring security to Iraq.

That is the nub of the issue in this presidential campaign: Has the invasion of Iraq made the region and our nation more or less secure? Kerry is making the case that Bush rushed into the war, without enough allies and without enough planning for the post-war period. Bush, who doesn't really have a good answer to those charges, is saying it is all about the war on terrorism and that criticizing his mistakes only gives hope to the enemy. And he paints a rosy picture because what else can he do?

Notice that both Bush and Kerry have about the same prescription for what to do now: try to get more international help and hold elections.

But there are no easy answers and, as this page tried to point out recently, there is no easy way out.