The Bush Defense of the War

From The Palm Beach Post - click here to read more...

President Bush's defense of his Iraq policy amounts to this:
"Al-Qaeda has declared Iraq to be the central front' in the war on terror. That happened because I miscalculated and invaded. Before I invaded, Iraq did not pose a terrorist threat. Now that it does, because of my administration's mistakes, we can't leave until we make sure we win that.' I'm not sure how we will win that, or how we eventually will define win, but it will be up to the next president. Or the one after that."

Obviously, you won't hear this president say that, because Mr. Bush never admits to mistakes. He doesn't even like to call Iraq a "war." But if you want to understand why there are few hopeful answers for what to do about Iraq, it's because Mr. Bush's blunders and mistaken assumptions have placed this country where everyone said after Vietnam we never again should be: in a prolonged, inconclusive, expensive war.