Lynn C. Woolsey: “the good news, I suppose, is that nearly 3 years into the Iraq war, the Bush administration has seen fit to share with…”

“the good news, I suppose, is that nearly 3 years into the Iraq war, the Bush administration has seen fit to share with the American people their war plan. The bad news is that there is no ``there'' there. The ``national strategy for victory'' shared with the American people last week is barely worth the paper it is printed on. It is essentially the same old warmed-over rhetoric that we have become accustomed to and frustrated with: the enemy is bad; we are good; we will never back down; we will achieve total victory. To the extent that this strategy for victory contains specifics, they are completely divorced from reality. In last week's speech, the President mentioned that Haifa Street, formerly called Purple Heart Boulevard because of all of the U.S. attacks incurred there, is now safely under the control of Iraq's security forces, but taking control of Haifa Street in Baghdad does not make Iraqi forces self-sustaining. Taking the battle to the enemy, as the President likes to put it, has not thwarted terrorism but, instead, made Iraq a hotbed of terrorism. The President insists that fighting the terrorists ``over there'' means that we are not fighting them at home. I doubt the people who call London, Madrid, or Bali their home would agree with that assessment. Who is to say that next time it will not be Chicago, Las Vegas, or San Francisco? There is no evidence that we are any more secure at home because of the war in Iraq.…”