He put it far more bluntly when leaders of Congress visited the White House earlier on Wednesday. “I said to Maliki this has to work or you’re out,” the president told the Congressional leaders, according to two officials who were in the room. Pressed on why he thought this strategy would succeed where previous efforts had failed, Mr. Bush shot back: “Because it has to.”
from today's
NYTimes.
This one quotation succinctly summarizes the President's approach.
First, note that he first makes it very clear that there is no sovereign Iraqi state--that Maliki serves at the pleasure of the president of the United States not as an expression of will of the Iraqi people. It's pretty much impossible to conduct the political diplomacy necessary to lower the level of strife between the Sunnis and the Shiites if the government is an American puppet.
Second, that "Because it has to" quotation is truly frightening. Ask your Senator if he or she really believes that war should be conducted on the basis of hopes and dreams rather than hard-headed assessment of the real situation and what can be salvaged from this misbegotten imperial adventure.
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