Iraq Reality Check: White House Spin and Photo Ops Don't Cut It Anymore

As far as public relations are concerned, Bush has had a couple of good weeks. As far as real policy or action is concerned, it's back to business as usual after the death of Zarqawi. As Zbigniew Brzezinski pointed out the other day, the Green Zone in Baghdad, a mere 104 acres, is the only safe place in the Iraqi capital and for miles around. Increasingly, Bush's many blunders have given the US a weak hand in world affairs. Michael Hirsh of Newsweek looks behind the spin and photo ops for a different look at US foreign policy:

America is viewed as weak at the moment, distracted and drained because of Iraq—and everybody out there is taking advantage of it. Too often, Americans tend to see other players on the international stage as merely part of the backdrop, conforming to our movements or remaining stationary while we get our act together. In fact, most of these world leaders are aggressive players in their own right who will push back, and hard, when they see softness. ...they are betting that George W. Bush is too out of resources and time to protest while they make a mockery of his agenda and his leadership.

Consider Bush's No. 1 agenda item for his second term: promoting democracy. Despite the good news out of Iraq in recent days, hopes for a flourishing democracy there have been reduced to hopes for minimal stability. Hopes for a democratically elected Palestinian partner have been reduced to a sense of helplessness while the new Hamas government resumes its policy of officially sanctioned terrorism. Not surprisingly, major Mideast players like Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who appeared genuinely under pressure to democratize a year and a half ago, are gaming this situation mightily. Mubarak has jailed his main secular opponent, Ayman Nour, and no longer seems worried about U.S. threats to withhold aid dollars...

Nothing has changed in the last five years. Bush struts on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln and declares mission accomplished. It wasn't. Bush flies into Iraq and tells us Baghdad is safe. It isn't. Even when Bush talks of democracy, it becomes just talk; there's little follow through and his two top advisers are Cheney and Rumsfeld who have no interest in democracy whatsoever. This is not leadership, it is public relations, and anyone who sees past the public relations and the tough talk clearly sees a weak and incompetent president. In the meantime, the war goes on and the drift in Washington continues. And this country has to worry about a dysfunctional president who may call out the national guard or call for a military strike when his numbers fall into politically uncomfortable territory. It is no way to run a country.