All the sound and fury over Iraq in advance of the American midterm elections signifies nothing. The United States has been reacting to events -- not dictating them -- since shortly after the U.S. military seized Baghdad three and a half years ago. President Bush's press conference Oct. 25 was a political gesture designed to convince the electorate that he is not terminally detached from Iraq's brutal reality. His relatively clear-eyed description of violence and sectarian divisions were a long-form version of his decision to ban "stay the course" from his vocabulary. But Bush did not unveil a new policy that deals with those realities. Instead his rhetoric revealed the limits of American control over the situation in Iraq.
Before Midterms, Neither Bush Nor Dems Proposing Good Options for Iraq
