Friday, December 9, 2005

It's victory, victory, victory for Bush

The Christian Science Monitor has some additional reporting on Bush's "victory" concept for the Iraq War.  The use of the word "victory" all the time, that is: In 'victory,' both power and peril: The word now peppers Bush's speeches on Iraq - by design 12/09/05.

Lee Feinstein of the Council on Foreign Relations sees it as problematic for Bush's effort to rally enthusiasm for his war policies:

But the Bush team's definition of what would constitute victory in Iraq remains fuzzy, say critics. And in using such a powerful word - especially in phrases such as "complete victory" - US officials may have set themselves a dauntingly high goal. As the president himself has said, the nature of the Iraqi conflict means it won't end, as World War II did, with the finality of a signing ceremony on the deck of a US battleship.

"Ending any war is hard," says Lee Feinstein, executive director of the Task Force Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. "He'd have been better off to say, 'We'll leave Iraq better than we found it.' " ...

But by being so forceful about complete victory the administration may have raised public expectations for a crisp, clear ending to the US experience in Iraq - an ending that may not occur during Bush's presidency, if ever.

"The administration made a deliberate choice to use the word 'victory,' " says Mr. Feinstein of the Council on Foreign Relations. "They've created a serious problem for themselves."

Ivo Daalder is also skeptical that a new marketing label will be effective in achieving Bush's goal of boosting home-front support for his approach:

The problem with Iraq isn't that the administration hasn't been talking about victory enough, says Ivo Daalder, senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution. It's the continued strength of the insurgency.

"If rhetoric doesn't match what's happening on the ground, then the rhetoric will be discounted," says Mr. Daalder.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are great at throwing words at us, even , or should I say, especially , FALSE ones! Give that VICTORY speech crap to the families of the 2000 plus dead soldiers. I'm sure they'ld feel much better MA!! rich

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine has just taken a job in Baghdad- he will be located at Camp Victory.  What is this, 1984?  Don't answer that...

;)

http://washingtonrox.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the Bush administration sometimes seems like they think "Orwellian" is the model they should use.  But with "victory" in Iraq, I tend to think the skeptics quoted in the article are right, in that people tend to associate "victory" with something like the Gulf War of 1991.  Then, you could say Iraq is out of Kuwait, mission accomplished, and every little town that had a few National Guard members mobilized held a victory parade.

It's hard to see how the outcome in this war could look anything like that.  Even in the best case. - Bruce