What James Baker Really Needed Was to Have Worked in a Day Care Center...
Sandy Levinson says that Bush is an adolescent:
Balkinization: Our adolescent President: David Sanger... includes the following paragraph:
[Bush] put [the logic of his plan] far more bluntly when leaders of Congress visited the White House earlier on Wednesday."I said to Maliki this has to work or you're out," the president told the Congressional leaders, according to two officials who were in the room. Pressed on why he thought this strategy would succeed where previous efforts had failed, Mr. Bush shot back: "Because it has to."
Two comments: 1) What exactly does it mean to say "I said to Maliki this has to work our you're out." I thought that the US considered Iraq a "sovereign" state--recall the justification for handing over Saddam Hussein to the Shi'ite government. So how, precisely, can the US assure that Maliki is "out." Is the Iraqi government a wind-up toy after all, whose energy from the last winding-up is running down and thus in need of another American wind-up? 2) Even more to the point, does "Because it has to" count as an answer to the question? Isn't this exactly the response one would might expect from, say, a semi-delusional adolescent when asked why he believes that some particular act will enable him to attain a goal, say a date with the homecoming queen?...
I am the father of two adolescents. Trust me: adolescents understand that "because it has to" is not a reason to expect something to work. Adolescents are reality-based.
What George W. Bush is is a toddler:
With Iraq Speech, Bush to Pull Away From His Generals - washingtonpost.com: F]ew of the key Baker-Hamilton recommendations appealed to the administration, which intensified its own deliberations.... How to look distinctive from the study group became a recurring theme.... [T]he National Security Council became enamored of the idea of sending more troops to Iraq in part because it was not a key feature of Baker-Hamilton...
If only James Baker had spent a good chunk of his life running a day-care center. Then he might have been qualified to run the Iraq Study Group. He would have understood. He would have known that the right strategy for dealing with a toddler requires that you say things like:
"Georgie. Mr. Baker will be very angry if you eat your vegetables!"
"Georgie. Mr. Baker will be very angry if you clean up your mess!"
"Georgie. Mr. Baker will be very angry if you reduce troop numbers in Iraq!"
"Georgie. Mr. Baker will be very angry if you negotiate with Iran!"
Impeach George W. Bush. Impeach him now.
