Political Skullduggery

This morning, ace WaPo op-ed man David Ignatius argues that Bush needs to do a better job of convincing the American people that we are, contrary to war critics, doing well in Iraq.

Ignatius says that if Bush fails to succeed in snowing the people, we may be forced--despite impending victory-- to withdraw prematurely from Iraq in failure.

This is an opening salvo of the "blame the war opponents for our eventual loss in Iraq" program, which was discussed here earlier this week.

The polls suggest that Bush is losing the ability to communicate effectively about the issue that matters most to him. He has a better story on Iraq than many people seem to appreciate: Iraqi politicians are in fact coming together toward a government of national unity; Iraqi troops are improving their performance; substantial reductions in the number of U.S. troops are likely this year. But to many Americans, judging by the polls, Bush's assertions sound like a broken record. His optimism comes across as happy talk...

Ask senior military commanders what they think about Bush and they will tell you they love his toughness -- but wish the White House could communicate its Iraq strategy better.

Horse Hockey. If the military commanders could win the war, they already would have. All the domestic propaganda in the world cannot salvage the mission. Only prolong the inevitable.

Bush works hard to disguise it, but one senses the same inner conflict that afflicted Johnson as Vietnam began to go bad. In "The Best and the Brightest," David Halberstam described LBJ's torment: "He was a good enough politician to know what had gone wrong and what he was in for and what it meant to his dreams, but he could not turn back, he could not admit that he had made a mistake. He could not lose and thus he had to plunge forward." But, recalls Halberstam, "instead of leading, he was immobilized, surrounded, seeing critics everywhere."

True enough. Ignatius always tries to sound reasonable when pushing the agenda of the national security state.

Then he is back to it:

It's a dangerous situation. If Bush loses his ability to convince the country that his war aims make sense, America may be forced into a hasty withdrawal that will have devastating repercussions.

Here you have it, folks. Ignatius has been entrusted to start getting opinion, especially among the influential Washington lemmings, behind the new meme.

It has worked for 30 years against the Vietnam War protest movement.

Hence, the Halberstam quote.