Sidney Blumenthal says that by linking Iraq with the war on terror, Bush has created a dynamic that threatens to destroy him:
Asked three times what his strategy is, or whether he has a new one, Bush tried to fend off the question with words like "dreams" and "democratic society". "That's the strategy," he said. Then Bush confused having a strategy with being in Iraq. "Now, if you say, are you going to change your strategic objective," he struggled to explain, "it means you're leaving before the mission is complete."Mark Morford blames Bush for "a general sickness, a vague nausea, a sense that, in fact, far beyond just miserable foreign policy and tax breaks for the rich and a single nasty, botched war, the whole system, all aspects of culture and American life have somehow been tainted, darkened, poisoned."
Perhaps Bush's bizarre summer reading, according to his press office, of Camus's The Stranger, is responsible for his melange of absurdities...
Marianne Means says Bush has disappeared down the rabbit hole:
Just as Alice tumbled into Wonderland, our esteemed leader abandoned the grim reality of life above ground for the happy fantasy of imagination in a land that doesn't exist. On the surface, the president was being strong and unwavering about the fact that he has no new ideas, his party is in trouble, the economy is uncertain and his dream of a peaceful new Middle East is crumbling.
But the conflict in Iraq he described did not much resemble the violent civil war most others see. Can tea parties with the Mad Hatter be far behind?
It is understandable the president is having difficulty coping with the ugliness of what his unprovoked invasion has wrought. He felt such pressure to counter growing public realization of the Iraqi disaster that he mounted an abrupt charm offensive before the press corps. He joked and behaved as though he liked some of them.
