Minced Garlic - New Keith Olbermann Special Comment ... Bush's legacy: The President Who Cried Wolf

I think, by this morning, President Bush may be just plain crying.

It’s almost as if six-years of karma have caught up to our Court-Appointed President, or that the Higher Father just shockingly discovered what is being said about Him and quickly took a few steps back with “Wait a minute! I didn’t tell him to go into Iraq!”

The blowback has been fierce (finally!).

From harsh hearings on the Hill, to sinking polls, and even his formerly fanatic fan base - military audiences - are not paying attention to the “Applause” light.

Add to this another exceptionally stellar Special Comment last evening, from MSNBC Countdown Anchor-Hero Keith Olbermann, this one titled Bush's legacy: The president who cried wolf

Only this president, only in this time, only with this dangerous, even messianic certitude, could answer a country demanding an exit strategy from Iraq, by offering an entrance strategy for Iran.

If Bush was hoping to dampen the criticism about Iraq, but throwing Iran and Syria in the mix (noted by The Garlic on Wednesday), that may be gaining momentum, as noted, not only Olbermann, but also by Steven Clemmons’ The Washington Note yesterday.

And lessons learned are not apparent, as Olbermann noted from the media briefings given by the White House prior to Bush’s speech Tuesday evening, with the President and White House banging the same drums for Iran and Syria, that they banged for Iraq;

In fact, when you briefed news correspondents off-the-record before the speech, they were told, once again, “if you knew what we knew … if you saw what we saw … ”

“If you knew what we knew” was how we got into this morass in Iraq in the first place.

The problem arose when it turned out that the question wasn’t whether we knew what you knew, but whether you knew what you knew.

You, sir, have become the president who cried wolf.

A centerpiece of this Special Comment was Olbermann reprising a riff he did on Tuesday evening, running down a biting list on the merits of our Chief Surger credibility;

I read this list last night, before the president’s speech, and it bears repeating because its shape and texture are perceptible only in such a context.

Before Mr. Bush was elected, he said nation-building was wrong for America.
Now he says it is vital.
He said he would never put U.S. troops under foreign control.
Last night he promised to embed them in Iraqi units.
He told us about WMD.
Mobile labs.
Secret sources.
Aluminum tubes.
Yellow-cake.
He has told us the war is necessary:
Because Saddam was a material threat.
Because of 9/11.
Because of Osama Bin Laden. Al-Qaida. Terrorism in general.
To liberate Iraq. To spread freedom. To spread Democracy. To prevent terrorism by gas price increases.
Because this was a guy who tried to kill his dad.
Because — 439 words in to the speech last night — he trotted out 9/11 again.
In advocating and prosecuting this war he passed on a chance to get Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.
To get Muqtada Al-Sadr. To get Bin Laden.

He sent in fewer troops than the generals told him to. He ordered the Iraqi army disbanded and the Iraqi government “de-Baathified.”
He short-changed Iraqi training. He neglected to plan for widespread looting. He did not anticipate sectarian violence.
He sent in troops without life-saving equipment. He gave jobs to foreign contractors, and not Iraqis. He staffed U.S. positions there, based on partisanship, not professionalism.

He and his government told us: America had prevailed, mission accomplished, the resistance was in its last throes.
He has insisted more troops were not necessary. He has now insisted more troops are necessary.
He has insisted it’s up to the generals, and then removed some of the generals who said more troops would not be necessary.
He has trumpeted the turning points:

The fall of Baghdad, the death of Uday and Qusay, the capture of Saddam. A provisional government, a charter, a constitution, the trial of Saddam. Elections, purple fingers, another government, the death of Saddam.

He has assured us: We would be greeted as liberators — with flowers;
As they stood up, we would stand down. We would stay the course; we were never about “stay the course.”
We would never have to go door-to-door in Baghdad. And, last night, that to gain Iraqis’ trust, we would go door-to-door in Baghdad.
He told us the enemy was al-Qaida, foreign fighters, terrorists, Baathists, and now Iran and Syria.
He told us the war would pay for itself. It would cost $1.7 billion. $100 billion. $400 billion. Half a trillion. Last night’s speech alone cost another $6 billion.

And after all of that, now it is his credibility versus that of generals, diplomats, allies, Democrats, Republicans, the Iraq Study Group, past presidents, voters last November and the majority of the American people.

And after all of that, now it is his credibility versus that of generals, diplomats, allies, Democrats, Republicans, the Iraq Study Group, past presidents, voters last November and the majority of the American people.

Maybe their hoping that Rove has his “The Math” cap back on and working, or that the Freak Show will carry the message and beat down ... Well, just about everybody - Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative. The White House appears to be escalating its’ escalation, and quite rapidly and this is going to require the other two branches of our government stepping up, large and strong, and enforce their constitutional mandate to keep this crew in check.

Links

Read and/or Watch Video of Bush's legacy: The President Who Cried Wolf

Howard Fineman’s A Crisis of Confidence

Transcript - President Bush Addresses Nation on Iraq War

Chopped Garlic - When In Doubt, Send The Marines