International Herald Tribune Editorial - George W. Bush, alone

International Herald Tribune Editorial - George W. Bush, alone
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: May 11, 2007


The difference between mainstream hawks and mainstream doves on Iraq seems to have boiled down to two months, with House Democrats now demanding progress by July while moderate Republicans are willing to give the White House until September, but no longer, to show results.

Then there is President George W. Bush, who has yet to acknowledge the reality that congressional Republicans now seem to accept. Three months into Bush's troop escalation, there is no real security in Baghdad and no measurable progress toward reconciliation, while American public support for this folly has all but run out.

The really important question now facing Washington is the one Bush still refuses to address: how, while there is still some time left, to design an exit strategy that contains the chaos in Iraq and minimizes the damage to U.S. interests when American troops inevitably leave.

There was no shortage of reminders this week of how swiftly and thoroughly the political landscape has shifted against the war.

Thursday brought Tony Blair's announcement that he will step down as Britain's prime minister next month. He chose to go out on a high note, after the formation of a new Northern Ireland government joining Sinn Fein with its fiercest Protestant foes. That is a historic achievement. But it cannot disguise the way Blair's once boundless prospects and personal credibility imploded after he became Bush's most articulate enabler on Iraq.

If Bush hopes to salvage anything from his 20 months left in office, and, more to the point, if he wants to play a constructive role in the accelerating Iraq endgame, he needs to understand how much has changed in this country, and how tragically little has changed in Iraq.

The American people are no longer willing to write blank checks of blood and treasure to an Iraqi government that has refused to stop rampaging Shiite militias, has failed to approve constitutional changes to bring estranged Sunni Arabs back into the political system, and has still not come up with a way to share oil revenues fairly. Now it wants to give itself a two-month summer vacation.

Bush needs to face up to this grim reality and abandon his fantasies of ultimate victory and vindication. Otherwise, he could find himself, and America's best long-term interests, run over by a bipartisan rush toward the nearest exit.