Death Of A Surge Salesman

By Cernig

Yesterday, George W. Bush became Wily Loman.

Just about everyone realises his speech was a con-nucopia of crap built around two huge lies - that any troop withdrawal is about "success" rather than a broken military and that the birth of the Anbar Opportunism had anything to do with the Surge. That's about all I can say, all that needs said. By March, it will be lifeboat time over at S.S. Republican and Bush, by the evidence of last night, will still be shuffling deckchairs.

But I want to draw your attention to four blog posts I think are very worth reading and explore details better than I would:

Fred Kaplan unpacks the whole speech:

President Bush's TV address tonight was the worst speech he's ever given on the war in Iraq, and that's saying a lot. Every premise, every proposal, nearly every substantive point was sheer fiction. The only question is whether he was being deceptive or delusional.

Also at Salon, Glenn Greenwald explores the "complete blather" of the Beltway Boys.

they all proclaimed in May that September was the Day of Reckoning: there would be bipartisan, forced withdrawal if the political benchmarks weren't met -- only for the same thing to happen over and over. The conditions are not met; Bush proclaims we are staying; and the Washington Establishment submits.

While over on the Right, Rick Moran was distinctly underwhelmed:

George Bush treats us like children, afraid that telling us the truth of what is going on in Iraq or at least being realistic about describing the situation will scare us or cause us to want to hide under the bed. It is depressing. The disconnect between the Iraq Bush describes and the real thing is not lost on the American people who I believe would respond much more positively to Bush if he didn’t try and sugarcoat the situation...we should expect more from our presidents than the rhetoric of the stump. Bush is not a bad man nor is he stupid. He is simply inadequate.

And lastly, Smintheus at Unbossed unpacks the myth of the Right's new martyr from the Anbar Opportunism:

Abu Risha had tense relations with other powerful sheiks even within the (mainly tribal) "Anbar Awakening" group. He was also loathed by many other Sunni groups in Anbar Province, including a rival tribal coalition and especially the anti-occupation insurgents, particularly after he appeared with George Bush ten days ago.
...And then there were all those who detested Abu Risha because he was a crook and a thug, a leader of highway robbers, who had among other things stolen millions of dollars donated by the US.

Painting a bandit as a hero of the fight for freedom victory success just fits perfectly with the rest of the misadventure in Blunderland, doesn't it?