Is this president going to be capable of responding to reality?

Daily Kos: Sy Hersh's new New Yorker article "Up in the Air": "is this president going to be capable of responding to reality? "



Very interesting article on Daily Kos, quoting a Sy Hersh/Wolf Blitzer interview, concerning Hersh's latest New Yorker article.



Hersh has extensive sources, and great personal values. He is truly a great reporter; what he reports about the past, is usually scrupulously accurate. What he says, in television interviews, about future prospects, "where things are headed" is often a tad overdramatized.



Nevertheless, what he says, is worrisome. The great political storms feed off of the obtuseness of those in power. The country has decided that it wants out of Iraq. The Army has concluded that it has to get out of Iraq soon, to survive as an effective force. A President, who was awake, would lead the country out of Iraq. This President may well not be aware that the country and the Pentagon have made this decision to withdraw from Iraq.



The policy of this Administration has not been to withdraw from Iraq, ever. No preparations for withdrawal have been made. The training of Iraqi forces has been little more than P.R.; the Iraqi forces are not capable of operating independently of U.S. forces. This is by design. And, this design, which is the President's design, is going to make the withdrawal, which the country and the Pentagon want, into a catastrophe.



The Congress, before or after the 2006 elections, will step in, and force withdrawal. But, Congress does not do a good job of leadership. The Congress cannot force the President to lead, to plan a sensible withdrawal.



The President may permit a token withdrawal, but all that will accomplish is to weaken the U.S. position.



The whole house of cards, which is the Iraqi puppet government, may well collapse.