Posted on: Wednesday, May 26, 2004

EDITORIAL
Bush Iraq speech: forceful yet vague

Reading between the lines of President Bush's address on Iraq policy Monday night, it seems fair to infer that he has bet his political future — and to some extent that of his fellow Americans — on his abiding faith that Iraqis truly long for democracy.

Bush is betting that if he puts governing power in the hands of Iraqis on June 30, they will opt — and work hard — not for the false comfort of authoritarian rule, or the fear-based discipline of Sharia law, or the ascendancy of one ethnic or religious group or gender, but for a system fundamentally recognizable to Westerners.

Most Americans admire and support such a vision. But a disastrous sequence of setbacks is leading them to fear that this mission to bring democracy to Iraq must be more than a faith-based initiative to stand any chance of success.

Americans are waiting to see a plan.

Some will be comforted by Bush's speech at the U.S. Army War College, but a sense of foreboding for others will be heightened by the speech's lack of specifics, and by Bush's characteristic unwillingness to admit to error or even that policy is changing.

The Pentagon under Bush has yet to find a way to pacify a growing Iraqi insurgency without feeding the insurgency itself with Iraqis offended by the pacification measures. Nor has he presented any realistic plan to internationalize the military operation or to get Iraq's political groups to work for national unity instead of jockeying for power.

The five steps that he said would help Iraq achieve democracy and freedom are old goals: transfer authority on June 30, establish security, encourage broader international support, accelerate reconstruction and stage national elections no later than next January.

But on Monday Bush presented no clearer plan to achieve these goals. Bush has promised a series of policy speeches on the subject in the run-up to June 30. We're hoping signs of a specific strategy will emerge.