Our chickenhawk Preznit fails to make his own reality (again)

Like any bully, Bush really does run when someone stands up to Him, doesn't he? He fled DC during Fitzgeralds indictment (as did Big Time).

Worse, Bush flees from reality.

Get a load of His latest speech to the troops. (Can't he stop using them as props for His photo ops? It's disgusting.) And He's still pushing the Flypaper theory!

"Some observers also claim that America would be better off by cutting our losses and leaving Iraq now," Bush said. "This is a dangerous illusion, refuted with a simple question: Would the United States and other free nations be more safe or less safe with [Iraqi insurgency leader Abu Musab] Zarqawi and [al Qaeda leader Osama] bin Laden in control of Iraq, its people and its resources?"

Well, last I checked, a rhetorical question never refuted anything. But consider:

1. Bush is still pushing the AQ/Iraq lie. Amazing.

2. Bush is now also saying the war was about oil after all. How else are we supposed to interpret the idea that the war is justified because it's over control of "resources"?

3. Obviously, Zarqawi isn't going to control the Kurdish north, or the Shiite south.

4. If Zarqawi does control anything, and it's not at all clear that this Bushian demon figure is going to, it's going to be the Sunni center.

5. And that will happen as the result of a Civil War that would never have happened if we had not intervened.

6. And Sistani may invite us to leave in any case.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric is considering demanding a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. and foreign troops after a democratically elected government takes office next year, according to associates of the Iranian-born cleric.

If the Americans and their coalition partners do not comply, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani would use peaceful means such as mass street protests to step up pressure for a pullout schedule, according to two associates of the cleric.

You know, if I'd been listening to that speech, I don't think I would have heard a lot that would make me want to lay down my life...

UPDATE AP via Kos: Apparently, the majority of the troops agree:

Overall, 53 percent of those surveyed for the poll released yesterday did not approve of Bush's job performance, while 57 percent did not approve of his handling of the Iraq war.

"We see that those most involved in the Iraq situation, the military, are not so different from the general public after all and share the same concerns about Iraq," said Hunter Bacot, the poll's director. "Conventional wisdom might suggest that the military would be more supportive of Bush in Iraq, but that simply isn't the case if you look at the numbers."

North Carolina has one of the nation's largest military presences, with major Army, Marine and Air Force installations based in Eastern North Carolina. Active-duty and reserve units from North Carolina have seen extensive action since the United States attacked Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Of the 539 adults surveyed for the Elon poll, 80 - or 14.8 percent of the sample - were active-duty, reserve, retired or veteran members of the military.

The telephone poll was conducted between Monday and Thursday and has a margin of error for the entire sample of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.