Notes on the Bush Speech

Anyone looking for an exit strategy in last night's speech by President Bush will be hard pressed to find one. Too many of the stated goals are open-ended.

What is our first and foremost enemy to defeat and outlast? According to President Bush, it's an ideology, and it was mentioned several times ("totalitarian ideology", "murderous ideology", "hateful ideology"). It's tough to outlast an ideology, or defeat it...and how or when does one claim victory? Who has to be captured, defeated or killed? It's a war that never ends.

We are also after the terrorists. Is that really a "mission" that can be completed? When does that end? Recent history shows that terrorists can lose most support over a long period of time, but individual, crazed murderers always exist. Once again, how do you claim victory, and who decides when it is over? Is there a minimum frequency of terrorist attacks at which victory can be declared? Some quotes from Bush's speech: "To complete the mission, we will continue to hunt down the terrorists and insurgents" and "The principal task of our military is to find and defeat the terrorists".

Bush says that "all they have to do is to wait us out", and that may seem an impossible timeline for the US to beat, as we will have to leave someday, but there really is a hard deadline when it comes to Bush. His term will be over, and then, if it is a personal battle of wills between Bush and some vague enemies, the game will be over. One side will be leaving the playing field, and perhaps the game can be called off. Maybe then, the troops will come home.

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There was one new and interesting quote from the speech:

"The other critical element of our strategy is to help ensure that the hopes Iraqis expressed at the polls in January are translated into a secure democracy. The Iraqi people are emerging from decades of tyranny and oppression. Under the regime of Saddam Hussein, the Shia and Kurds were brutally oppressed, and the vast majority of Sunni Arabs were also denied their basic rights, while senior regime officials enjoyed the privileges of unchecked power."

Now this is an honorable goal. Is Bush serious about this? It seems that the Iraqi people do have the same problems as the rest of the world: the "privileges of unchecked power". Perhaps this is the most important goal in Iraq. But why don't we include ourselves and our biggest trading partners in that goal, where the few take advantage of the many, and some enjoy privilege and unchecked power? Corruption, bribery, and the privilege of officials are rampant in some of the countries with the largest populations, and the cheapest labor. If this critical strategy is good enough for Iraq, how about for the rest of us?