You think Great Britain's decision to remove troops from Iraq while Bush insists on an escalation is awkward? Awkward is an understatement. Tony Blair's decision completely undermines Bush. The Bush spin machine hit a brick wall with this one. In fact, most are mocking the claim from the White House that this is a good thing. And, it is mockable:
As the British announced the beginning of their departure from Iraq yesterday, President Bush's top foreign policy aide proclaimed it "basically a good-news story." Yet for an already besieged White House, the decision was doing a good job masquerading as a bad-news story.Bush and the Republicans are gearing for another attack -- but against the Democrats -- not a real attack in Iraq. The Republicans put all their energy in to fighting political battles about the war instead of figuring out a plan for the real war.
What national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley meant was that the British believe they have made enough progress in southern Iraq to turn over more of their sector to Iraqi forces. To many back in Washington, though, what resonated was that Bush's main partner in Iraq is starting to get out just as the president is sending in more U.S. troops.
But Bush and the GOP are on the wrong side. The American people don't support the war. Now, with Bush's best ally bailing out of the quagmire, the GOP are running out of arguments:
Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) said the move will undercut Republicans in Congress trying to stave off attempts to limit what Bush can do in Iraq.Another understatement. Of course, this means the GOP will start getting really ugly. Exhibit A is Dick Cheney's ugly attempt to smear Pelosi and Murtha yesterday. We can expect a lot more of that in the weeks ahead. And we can also expect the Democrats to fight back -- hard. Very hard.
"It's probably not going to bode well for those of us who want to make a case against what Murtha and Pelosi plan for the supplemental," LaHood said. "It does not help."
