Out of Touch

During the critical days following the national emergency of hurricane Katrina, it seemed as though President Bush was out of touch with the suffering and plight of the victims. Although there was plenty of blame to go around, his aloofness undoubtedly hurt his poll numbers, dragging them down below 40% for the first time in his presidency.

In recent statements about the situation in Iraq, it again seems as though President Bush is out of touch; even as the top US commander in Iraq recently reported that only one battalion of Iraqi troops was ready to fight without US support, down from an estimate of three a few months ago, President Bush today cited “important gains in recent weeks and months” in Iraq. He went on to say, “Our commanders report that the Iraqi forces are serving with increasing effectiveness.” Did I miss something? Is President Bush even aware of the statements his military leadership is making?

I truly want to believe there is a reason for this discrepancy of opinion – I even want to believe that President Bush is right and that the reports from his general are misleading. For the sake of our troops over there, I pray this is the case. The problem is, I have no reason to believe the President – he is not on the ground over there, and he has every reason to put a positive spin on a negative situation. Moreover, I’m reminded of the old “boy who cried wolf” scenario; even if it was the result of many intelligence failures and through no fault of his own (though the Downing Street Memos indicate otherwise), President Bush misled the American people and the Congress into supporting this war in the first place. Even as bombs explode again in Bali, he continues to insist that progress in Iraq is part of bringing about “victory in the war on terror,” denying that the whole action may have actually been a distraction from our fight against those who attacked us and who continue to attack our allies around the world.

Nevertheless, we - President Bush included - cannot go back and undo past mistakes – I realize that. When he seemed out of touch with Katrina and his numbers started to slide, he publicly took responsibility for the mistakes that were made, and then worked to make sure they were not repeated with hurricane Rita. The time has come for him to do the same with the situation in Iraq – admit that mistakes were made under his leadership, level with the American people that the road ahead may be long and rocky, admit that even though Iraq may have not had much to do with the War on Terror in 2003, it has everything to do with it now, and seek areas in which the efforts over there can be improved. Certainly, any one of these steps would be better than more out of touch speeches and rhetoric that undermines the statements of the generals directly responsible for our friends and family in uniform in Iraq.