The Washington Monthly is asking about the fantasyland that George Bush seems to be living in, when waging a war in which the strategy seems to be based not on any real situations, but on election-year political situations.
[Our upcoming] election, and the political considerations that go along with it, have been driving our military strategy for the past two years. Before the war, we passed up a chance to take out terrorist mastermind Abu Musab Zarqawi — for political reasons. We invaded with too few troops — for political reasons. We lowballed the cost of the war — for political reasons. We ignored the UN and then turned around and pleaded for their help — for political reasons. Then we installed Iyad Allawi as president behind the UN’s back — for political reasons.
And just recently we’ve learned that the Marines were yo-yoed in and out of Fallujah — for political reasons. The president has bizarrely dismissed his own intelligence agencies’ analysis of Iraq as “guessing” — for political reasons. He’s ignored the advice of his own generals about troop requirements for the upcoming [Iraqi] elections — for political reasons. And assaults on Baathist enclaves have been postponed until December — for fairly obvious political reasons.
And things just keep going downhill.
(via Atrios)