The Dance of the Stubborn

What we are seeing right now is President Bush responding to the utter failure of his main plan, the Iraq War. This was the big one for him - a chance to show Daddy that gut instincts can run the world better than exhaustive research and brain power. Now that it has blown up on him, Junior's ready to fold. He wants to fold. But he knows that he can't do it without looking like a colossal loser. This is the point where the arrogant little punk is at his worst. If he gives in, it will be with a big tantrum - like watching a nanny drag a rich brat out to the limo.

The beleaguered President of Iraq finally showed up to talk with our guy in Jordan. President Bush said, "One of his frustrations with me is that he believes that we've been slow about giving him the tools necessary to protect the Iraqi people. He doesn't have the capacity to respond. So we want to accelerate that capacity." Oh, so that's what went wrong. We forgot to accelerate the capacity. President Bush also said there will be no "graceful exit" from Iraq. It's clear that if he does give in, he's going to be as much of a pain in the ass about it as possible.

Meanwhile, there's that potential event out there: The real tipping point. When things go this poorly, it is very hard to keep them in a manageable level. Reporters in Iraq are saying that no amount of TV coverage can possible depict how messed up the place really is. How many Iraqis are there? 14 or 15 million? And we have less than 150,000 troops? In Vietnam, what would sometimes happen, would be that a base was overrun. Not that I was there or anything - I'm working off the History Channel here. The VC would take huge casualties but they would continue attacking until they had swarmed through the perimeter and taken one of our positions.

I worry that there is an event like that coming at us - an event so hideous that public opinion in America will turn from disgust to extreme anger. This Commander in Chief has left our troops out there in the wind. Every year gets worse, and the winter of 2006 is no different. The unbelievably hot days of the summer of 2007 lie ahead.

Let's hope that before then, our little rich kid gets past his need to drag this out, and relents. We can still do it on our terms or we can wait till something really awful happens involving the death or capture of a significant number of young Americans in one horrible event.

It's time for this stubborn little punk to realize that this is not about him or his famous resolve. Not anymore. He's acting like he's still concerned about his reputation with the American People. We've got to let him know not to bother.

The dance recital went poorly, the little brat is throwing a tantrum, and the America People must act as the nanny. We've got to drag this petulant child out to the limo and head home.