Tonight President Bush will tell us about his plan for a “New Way Forward” in Iraq.
This White House is not well-versed in history, so I don’t suppose the people who fashioned the slogan thought much about its similarity to the verbiage the totalitarian leaders of the 20th century hung over their policies. 
But the choice is in keeping with Bush administration iconographic bombast of the past: check out this photo from November, 2005, when Bush was touting one of the “New Way Forward”‘s many predecessor blueprints for success in Iraq.
Whether you call it a “New Way Forward” or a “Great Leap Forward,” the idea that sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq is going to transform the reality of U.S. defeat reflects the self-delusion of a dictatorial mind. Bush’s approach to Iraq is as out of touch with reality as the command-economy follies of Joseph Stalin or Mao Zedong: the resemblance lies in the determination to force a theory down reality’s throat no matter what the cost in human suffering or damage to national interest.
The particular peculiarity of Bush’s fiasco is that he is wrecking the American military, and prolonging a doomed fight, on behalf of the abstract notion of Iraq’s in potentio democracy — while flagrantly and petulantly ignoring the thunderous outcome of America’s own democratic process last November, which delivered a clear verdict on Bush’s war. (And that verdict was not “Escalate now!”)
No matter. Our Maximum Leader knows better than his generals and better than the people. Tonight he will address us from the royal balcony. A few toadies will applaud, but the rest of us will be counting the days till we can throw him out of office.
[tags]president bush, iraq, new way forward, totalitarianism[/tags]
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