Bush's New Look on Iraq: Weary

[CountAllVotes]

By David Ignatius
Wednesday, December 27, 2006; Page A19

Watching President Bush in recent weeks has become a grim kind of reality TV show. In almost every news conference, speech and photo opportunity, the topic is the same: what to do about the grinding war in Iraq. Bush has let the facade crack open -- admitting that his strategy for victory isn't working -- but then he struggles to rebuild it with new words of confidence.

The stress of the job -- so well hidden for much of the past six years -- has begun to show on Bush's face. He often looks burdened, distracted, haunted by a question that has no good answer. When a photographer captures him at ease, as in a sweet Texas-romance picture of Bush and his wife, Laura, that appeared in People magazine last week, it's as if he has escaped the Iraq sweatbox.

I grew up in a Washington that was struggling with the nightmare of a failing war in Vietnam. The government officials of that time were people who behaved as if they'd never known failure in their lives. They had the rosy confidence of the chosen -- "the best and the brightest," as David Halberstam put it. But then the war began to grind them down. I see that same meat grinder at work now. Bush and his officials are strong characters; they work hard not to let you see them sweat. But the anguish and exhaustion are there.

Bush is not a man for introspection. That's part of his flinty personality -- the tight, clipped answers and the forced jocularity of the nicknames he gives to reporters and White House aides. That's why this version of reality TV is so poignant: This very private man has begun to talk out loud about the emotional turmoil inside. He is letting it bleed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/26/AR2006122600776.html?nav=E8

[grasswire]

1. bunch of crap

Trying to humanize a thug from a family of thugs. It's a bunch of claptrap.

[maxsolomon]

2. i'm overwhelmed with empathy for our poor poor president

:puke:

"flinty", "poignant", "emotional turmoil"...

boo fucking hoo. don't like the results of your poor decision making? resign and high thee hence to paraguay.

[cdeca2005]

3. My thoughts exactly maxsolomon except....

.....you really need more puking smileys!

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

There, that should about do it.

[Phredicles]

4. "as if he has escaped the Iraq sweatbox."?

Too bad the people he sent over there, to say nothing of the people of Iraq, get no such escape. Rot in hell, Decider.:grr:

[CountAllVotes]

5. I often wonder if * ever thinks of the # of dead

that are the work of his hand?

Does he?

Distraught and beleaguered they say?

HE SHOULD BE!

[Lisa]

6. "a sweet Texas-romance picture" -- well, is he "haunted" or isn't he?

The article seems to imply that he can just turn off the "anguish" at the flip of a switch. Uh -- that's not the way it works. People who really are tormented don't function like that. The alternative, of course, is that he is .. what's the technical term? Oh, yes -- FAKING it.