Consistently Disconnected By Richard Cohen

Consistently Disconnected By Richard Cohen
Thursday, May 27, 2004; Page A31

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59053-2004May26.html



"We're making security a shared responsibility in Fallujah," the president told the nation. "Coalition commanders have worked with local leaders to create an all-Iraqi security force, which is now patrolling the city." But an Associated Press dispatch by Hamza Hendawi offers a different picture. The president's "all-Iraqi security force" has allowed Fallujah to become "an Islamic mini-state" -- complete with floggings and the usual restrictions on women. In this manner, it has been liberated from both the secular Saddam Hussein and the democratic Americans.

The contrast between what the president said and what the AP reported is jarring, but it is also somewhat typical. There was something detached about the president's address. Once again, for instance, he made Iraq the centerpiece of his war on terrorism when, as we all know by now, there was never a proven link between Hussein and al Qaeda. He went on in this vein nonetheless, not mentioning that it was weapons of mass destruction we were once after but, aside from a single trace of sarin uncovered recently and dating to before the Persian Gulf War, none have been found.



America is trapped. Having gone into Iraq, we cannot now pull out. In its own region, the country is more important than Vietnam ever was -- and not because it can become a democracy that will be emulated by others in the Middle East. It's rather that without an American military presence, Iraq will almost certainly fall into chaos, a bloody civil war that might well draw in its neighbors. Bad could turn out to be much worse.

But having said that, it's hard to feel confident that the Bush administration is prepared for the challenge ahead. It has been unforgivably incompetent so far, going to war for one reason, staying for another and layering contradictory facts with Sunday-school rhetoric. Fallujah, a compromised compromise, becomes a sterling success in the president's mouth. A systemic failure to abide by the Geneva Conventions becomes the kinky work of a few. The war over WMDs becomes one over terror. And Ahmed Chalabi, the erstwhile George Washington of Iraq, becomes Benedict Arnold virtually overnight. One moment he's Laura Bush's guest at the State of the Union speech; the next he's ranting anti-American screeds in Baghdad.

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"But to stick to the same rhetoric when the facts have changed, to insist on what is palpably false, to render black as white and to say it all with a childlike faith in civics class bromides is not commendable consistency. It is instead the mark of a narrow mind overwhelmed by large events."

OUCHIE!