The Rout Is On?

The cracks in the Bush Administration edifice are growing longer and deeper, as a scan of the day's news quickly reveals.

After a weekend which saw "Inspectors Contradict U.S. Evidence on Iraq" and with "Protests still ringing in ally leaders' ears" and Tony Blair's approval ratings plummeting, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is now lamenting that "we have to take account of public opinion."

While Arab leaders "affirm the necessity for their countries to refrain from offering any kind of assistance or facilities for any military action that leads to the threat of Iraq's security, safety, and territorial integrity" and Saudi Arabia has "hardened opposition to a unilateral attack" on Iraq and warned that same would be perceived as an "act of aggression" (duh); Turkey is still reluctant to grant U.S. troop access -- even with Bush having dangled 26 Billion U.S. taxpayer dollars in front of its face; Kurdish leaders are livid at the United States (Christopher Hitchens take note) for "quietly abandoning earlier declarations that it would make Iraq a model democracy in the Middle East;" "New rifts between the Bush administration and the Iraqi opposition are threatening to derail U.S.-led planning for a smooth transition to democracy in Iraq" as the plan "reverses a decade-long moral and financial commitment by the US to the Iraqi opposition, and is guaranteed to turn that opposition from the close ally it has always been during the 1990s into an opponent of the United States on the streets of Baghdad the day after liberation;" Austria is prohibiting U.S. troop movements through its territory; and Germans "would be very happy" if the U.S. were to close military bases there. While much of this opposition to U.S. plans is unprincipled, it's still something the United States isn't used to, and that perhaps couldn't a few weeks ago have even been conceivable.

Continuing the news-scan, we learn that the weekend's events are "setting back the Bush Administration's diplomatic schedule for lining up support for a war," the Administration is concocting yet another reason to blow Iraq to smithereens: a rocket that travels slightly further than the 93-mile limit, and it's "for the first time openly discussing" what could go wrong during and after the invasion. Perhaps not coincidentally, Dennis Kucinich has thrown his hat into the 2004 ring, becoming just the second (thanks, Dack) anti-war Democrat to opt in.

Ha! Even Wall Street, given "fresh hope" by last week's Blix report and massive peace rallies, is shaking off its doldrums.

Meanwhile, North Korea refuses to go away, Afghanistan slips further from the Bush Administration's grasp by the week, and three Americans have apparently been kidnapped by Colombian guerillas.

Clearly, the Bush Administration has bitten off more that it can chew. But here's the rub: it's also capable of destroying the world many times over. Indeed, some of the United States' top leaders appear to be giddy at the prospect: "John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in this world," says Jesse Helms of Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John R. Bolton, for example. Which is to say that time is very seriously a-wastin'.

There are any number of ways we can each -- in Marcos' words -- stand up and say, "No!" None of them is too trivial. Each of them increases our chances of success. The Wobs are fond of saying that "I Will Win". While it still seems highly improbable, the events of the last five days have shewn at least that we can win. We have the opportunity. Let us run with it.

Posted by Eddie Tews at February 18, 2003 03:15 PM