North Star Writers Group

In President Bush’s ideal world, the American public and his fellow Republican politicians would have given him until September before beginning to evaluate the troop surge in Iraq and, in the meantime, continued to dole out support simply because he is in power and/or shares their political affiliation.

As the New York Times reports, however, President Bush’s mojo is failing him. Even Senators once on his side are pushing for a new direction for Iraq, two months before Capitol Hill is to formally assess the situation. Bush’s immigration bill, the mark he hoped to leave of his years in office, was shot down by both parties. The American public, including even Bush’s political allies, are similarly awakening from the Bush spell. Among even the most conservative, Bush’s approval rating has dropped from 86 percent in April to 74 percent this month.

The past three months have been the bloodiest so far in Iraq, with a death toll of 329, coinciding with the troop surge. The argument can be made that when more troops are deployed, the death toll will rise, as, obviously, more servicemen and women will be in harm’s way than there were previously. However, even Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., who leads the U.S. forces located in Baghdad, blames escalating Sunni extremist resistance and the presence of troops in places where insurgents had, until recently, been in control.

“This is a skilled and determined enemy,” said Fil in response to one particularly damaging bomb blast on Thursday that resulted in the deaths of five soldiers. “He's ruthless. He's got a thirst for blood like I've never seen anywhere in my life. And he's determined to do whatever he can." According to Fil, U.S. forces are undertaking a resistance stronger than any they have seen so far. Yet Bush justified the surge as a way to combat violence getting in the way of Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders coming together to create a unified Iraq.

It’s not working. Yet Bush, in a speech at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island on Thursday, insisted that it was. After all this time, Bush remains immune to the criticism hurled at him from all sides. Instead of acknowledging that the state of affairs in Iraq is in need of critical evaluation, he asked for patience. He argued that we “owe” the military time and support. Again, opponents of the way things are going in Iraq are painted as nothing more than unpatriotic troop-haters. In actuality, we owe them a lot more than “time” and “support.” We owe them a different path, a path that leads out of Iraq.

In his speech, Bush allowed for one concession, but coupled it with a reference to his old stand-by – Al Qaeda. “Even as our troops are showing some success in cornering and trapping Al Qaeda, they face a lot of challenges,” he said. Never fear, he seems to suggest, the enemy, the reason we went to war in the first place, is being taken care of. It’s convenient for Bush that Al Qaeda is setting up shop in Iraq. It validates the nonexistent ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda that Bush has been insisting upon since 2002. Never mind the fact that there was no Al Qaeda presence in Iraq before the U.S. invaded.

Bush has managed to retain his confidence despite plummeting approval percentages and opposition from his own party, perhaps because he was able to leave his mark in the form of the Supreme Court justices whose recent votes leaned considerably to the right. Perhaps it will take members of both parties in Congress to prove to Bush that his reign is coming to a close. They can’t be accused of not trying. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that the Senate will vote to add four amendments to the Defense Authorization Bill, calling once again for a withdrawal timetable.

The protesting that occurred outside of the venue in liberal Rhode Island is a fitting microcosm for the last six-and-a-half years: Dissenters are shut out and stifled, while Bush is isolated, protected and deaf to the cries of 150 protestors who insist that this country is about its people, not its president.

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