Bush is planning to address the nation on Iraq Sunday afternoon. I'm willing to venture a few predictions about the speech.
He will not be announcing the discovery of any large portions of the 25,000 liters of anthrax, or the 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, or the "500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent" he talked about in his February State of the Union speech.
He will not be admitting that he lied to the American people and the world about the "weapons of mass destruction." Or saying he's sorry for deliberately promoting the fiction that Iraq had something to do with the 9/11 attacks.
He won't be announcing that he's firing Rummy or Colin Powell or Condi Rice for their false claims on those subjects. Or that Dick Cheney is resigning as Vice President for the same reason. Or for their general incompetence.
He won't be saying he was wrong to push for cuts in the combat pay and death benefits of our soldiers he's put into a horrible mess in Iraq.
I do expect to hear vague tributes to those soldiers. And lots of happy talk about how glad the Iraqis are that we liberated them, and about how much progress we've made in the occupation. There may be a mention of WMD "programs," or fatuous comparisons to postwar Germany and Japan. There may be some cosmetic new announcement of motion toward Iraqi self-government. He'll talk about how sincere he is in his effort to get assistance from the United Nations and our allies that he and Rummy worked so hard to insult and alienate. And there'll probably be some negative reference to his critics, which the rightwing echo chamber will immediately pick up and magnify.
But, whatever the specifics, it's a safe bet that the real meaning of the speech will be what Jackson Browne describes in his song "Casino Nation":
"DC to daylight, the cowboy mogul rides/Never worry where the gold for all this glory's gonna come from/Get along doggies, it's coming out of your hides."
-Bruce Miller
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