The Grand Delusionist

I have always worried about the Decider's sanity. After his speech yesterday I worry about the sanity of those around him. Has Rove left already? Who let him out of the Oval Office with that text in his hand? Has the CIA started pumping air borne hallucinogens through the White House ventilation system? Let's review it shall we?

1) He admits that he is no longer listening to the Generals on the ground (GOGs), in the air or in the grave as he explicitly states that there will be no withdrawal from Iraq whilst he is President. This either means that he will disregard any advice to pull out from the GOGs or he is resigning by the weekend. Admittedly the later is an outside bet at best.

2) He chooses to quote from Graham Green's The Quiet American in an attempt to justify his actions. Has no one at the White House actually read this scathing criticism of American policy in Indochina? Does no one realise that the character Pyle, who Captain Codpiece name checked in his speech, commits "well intentioned" and illegal acts which bring on disaster? Is he trying to tell us that he does not care about consequences?

3) Despite having repeatedly insisted that the "Vietnam analogy" is a bad one he now rolls it out himself. Like a bad high school history teacher with an agenda he tells us that the "legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens" quite forgetting to mention that the price of America's intervention was paid by millions of innocent citizens time two or three!

Clearly the pre-speech coaching wasn't up to snuff or the ear piece wasn't working as he proved unable to pronounce either Phnom Penh or Khmer Rouge. The later came out as something like "Kamer Rouge" which I believe in Deutsche-Français means "red room". (Is it Behind the Green Door?)

Watch and decide for yourself.