was nothing compared to the spectacle of one unfiltered, unguarded, horrifying quotation in the new biography to which Mr. Bush has consented.

As he deceived the troops at Al-Asad Air Base yesterday with the tantalizing prospect that some of them might not have to risk being killed and might get to go home…

Mr. Bush probably did not know that, with his own words, he had already proved that he had been lying… is lying… will be lying.... about Iraq.

He presumably did not know, that there had already appeared those damning excerpts from Robert Draper's book "Dead Certain."

"I'm playing for October-November," Mr. Bush said to Draper.

That, evidently, is the time during which, he thinks he can sell us the real plan.

Which is, to quote him: "To get us in a position where the presidential candidates, will be comfortable about sustaining a presence."Comfortable" - that is - with saying about Iraq, again quoting the President, "stay... longer."

And there it is, Sir.

We've caught you.

Your goal is not to bring some troops home - maybe - if we let you have your way now;

Your goal is not to set the stage for eventual withdrawal;

You are, to use your own disrespectful, tone-deaf word, playing at getting the next Republican nominee to agree to jump into this bottomless pit with you, and take us with him, as we stay in Iraq for another year, and another, and another, and anon.

Everything you said about Iraq yesterday, and everything you will say, is a deception, for the purpose of this one cynical, unacceptable, brutal goal - perpetuating this war indefinitely.

War today, war tomorrow, war forever!

And you are playing at it!

Playing!

A man with any self-respect, having inadvertently revealed such an evil secret, would have already resigned and fled the country!

You have no remaining credibility about Iraq, Sir.

And yet, yesterday at Al-Asad, Mr. Bush kept playing - and this time, using the second of his two faces.

The President told reporters, quote - "They, (General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker) "tell me if the kind of success we are now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces."

And so, Mr. Bush got his fraudulent headlines today.

"Bush May Bring Some Troops Home."

While the reality is, we know from what he told Draper, that the President's true hope is that they will not come home; but that they will stay there, because he is keeping them there now, in hope that those from his political party fighting to succeed him, will prolong this unendurable disaster into the next decade.

But, to a country dying of thirst, the President seemed to vaguely promise a drink from a full canteen - a promise predicated on the assumption that he is not lying.

Yet you are lying, Mr. Bush.

Again.

But now, we know... why.

You gave away more of yourself than you knew in the Draper book…

And you gave away more still, on the arduous trip back out of Iraq - hours in the air, without so much as a single vacation.

"If you look at my comments over the past eight months," you told reporters, "it's gone from a security situation - in the sense that we're either going to get out and there will be chaos, or, more troops. Now, the situation has changed, where I'm able to speculate on the hypothetical."

Mr. Bush, the only "hypothetical" here is that you are not now holding our troops... hostage.

You have no intention of withdrawing them.

But that doesn't mean you can't pretend you're thinking about it, does it?

That is your genius, Sir - as you see it, anyway.

You can deduce what we want - we, the people, remember us? - and then use it against us.

You can hold that canteen up and promise it to the parched nation.

And the untold number of Americans whose lives have not been directly blighted by Iraq - or who do not realize that their safety has been reduced and not increased by Iraq - they will get the bullet points: 'Bush is thinking about bringing some troops home. Bush even went to Iraq.'

You can fool some of the people all of the time, can't you, Mr. Bush?

You are playing us!

And as for the most immediate victims of the President's perfidy and shameless manipulation - those troops, yesterday sweating literally as he spoke at Al-Asad Air Base...

Tonight, again sweating figuratively in The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death...

The President saved, for them, the most egregious "playing" in the entire trip.

"I want to tell you this about the decision, about my decision about troop levels. Those decisions will be based on a calm assessment by our military commanders on the conditions on the ground - not a nervous reaction by Washington politicians to poll results in the media."

One must compliment Mr. Bush's writer.

That, perhaps, was the mostly perfectly crafted phrase of his Presidency.

For depraved indifference to Democracy, for the craven projection of political motives onto those trying to save lives and save a nation, for a dismissal of the value of the polls and the importance of the media… for a summary of all he does not hold dear about this nation or its people - nothing... could top that.

As if, Sir, you listened to all the "calm assessments" of our military commanders -rather than firing the ones who dared say The Emperor Has No Clothes, and The President, No Judgment;

As if, Sir, your entire presidency was not a "nervous reaction", and you yourself, nothing but a Washington politician;

As if, Sir, "the media" does not largely divide into those parts your minions are playing, and those others who unthinkingly and uncritically serve as your echo chamber, at a time when the nation's future may depend on the airing of dissent.

And as if, Sir, those polls were not so overwhelming, and not so clearly reflective of the nation's agony... and the nation's insistence.

But this President has ceased to listen.

This President has decided that night is day, and death is life, and enraging the world against us, is safety.

And this laziest of Presidents, actually interrupted his precious time off to fly to Iraq to play at a photo opportunity... with soldiers... some of whom will... on his orders... be killed before the year... maybe the month... is out.

Just over 500 days remain in this Presidency.

Consider the dead who have piled up on the battlefield.... in these last 500 days.

Consider the singular fraudulence of this President's trip to Iraq yesterday, and the singular fraudulence of the selling of The Petraeus Report... in these last 500 days.

Consider how this President has torn away at the fabric of this nation in a manner of which terrorists can only dream... in these last 500 days.

And consider again how this President has spoken to that biographer: that he is "playing for October-November"… the goal in Iraq is "To get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence"… and consider how this revelation contradicts every other rationale he has offered... in these last 500 days.

In the context of all that… now, consider… these next 500 days.

Mr. Bush, our presence in Iraq must end.

Even if it means your resignation.

Even if it means your impeachment.

Even if it means a different Republican to serve out your term.

Even if it means a Democratic Congress - and those true Patriots among the Republicans - standing up and denying you another **penny** for Iraq, other than for the safety and the safe conduct home of our troops.

This country cannot run the risk of what you can still do to this country... in the next 500 days…

Not while you, Sir... are playing.

Good night, and good luck.

*******

Kabuki at Camp Cupcake

By Dan Froomkin

The Washington Post

Tuesday 04 September 2007

What exactly was President Bush up to yesterday, making a "surprise visit" to a huge American air base in Iraq, praising the ostensible progress there and hinting at a troop reduction if things keep going so well?

One answer lies in the remarkably forthright interviews Bush gave author Robert Draper for a new book coming out today. As Jim Rutenberg wrote in Sunday's New York Times, Bush earlier this year explained his Iraq strategy to Draper this way: "I'm playing for October-November."

Writes Rutenberg: "That is when he hopes the Iraq troop increase will finally show enough results to help him achieve the central goal of his remaining time in office: 'To get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence,' and, he said later, 'stay longer.'

And the president is now aware that the only way to get attention is to make a dramatic move. "'I've been here too long,' Mr. Bush said, according to Mr. Draper. 'Every time I start painting a rosy picture, it gets criticized and then it doesn't make it on the news.'"

In other words: Bush is gaming the media - and playing for time. (See my Aug. 24 column, The Lost Year.)

In November it will be a year since the American people voted out a Republican Congress in a display of anti-war sentiment. And in November 2008, there'll be a new president-elect - and Bush will be well on his way to a new life where he won't have to worry about such things anymore.

About that new life: "First, Mr. Bush said, 'I'll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol' coffers.' With assets that have been estimated as high as nearly $21 million, Mr. Bush added, 'I don't know what my dad gets - it's more than 50-75' thousand dollars a speech, and 'Clinton's making a lot of money.'

"Then he said, 'We'll have a nice place in Dallas,' where he will be running what he called 'a fantastic Freedom Institute' promoting democracy around the world. But he added, 'I can just envision getting in the car, getting bored, going down to the ranch.'"

The Coy Morsel

The latest variation on Bush's stalling tactic involves coyly hinting about a troop drawdown. But some sort of drawdown has long been seen as inevitable and predictable by pretty much every serious thinker on Iraq. And it's unlikely that Bush is contemplating anything like the kind of congressionally-mandated, timetable-driven complete withdrawal that a significant majority of the American public has been demanding for some time.

Here's what set off the latest media flurry. At a meeting with Iraqi leaders, Bush announced that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker had told him that "if the kind of success we are now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces."

And here's Bush's interview with CBS News's Katie Couric:

Couric: "In some way, does this hopefully in your view placate critics of the war on Capitol Hill?"

Bush: "You know I don't know, Katie, it's a good question. I would certainly hope so. In other words, if we're able to redeploy at some point time, I would hope so."

Bush then lapsed back into his familiar scare tactics: "Failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States. . . . The American people have got to understand that what happens in Iraq matters in the streets. And so therefore I would hope that people would, you know, listen to the facts and remember that the security of the country is at stake. "

Couric raised the withdrawal issue again: "But just hearing those two words - troop reduction - do think it will win some people over who are uncomfortable with this war?"

And this time, Bush backed down: "That was just speculating. It's not going to win anybody over until it becomes a reality."

Bush met with reporters on Air Force One after leaving Iraq, and made it clear he was aware that his comment about troop reductions had piqued interest. "Maybe I was intending to do that," he said.

"If you look at my comments over the past eight months, it's gone from a security situation in the sense that we're either going to get out and there will be chaos, or more troops," the president said. "Now the situation has changed where I'm able to speculate on the hypothetical. . . . Isn't that remarkable?"

Here's the full pool report on his Air Force One interview. No official transcript has been released.

The Suspense Charade

Much of the press seems to be going along with a narrative that involves suspense over what Petraeus and Crocker will say and what Bush will decide. It's true that the public doesn't know the details yet, but it really couldn't be more obvious that Bush already knows full well what Petraeus and Crocker will tell Congress next week - and has already decided on what he himself will tell the nation the following week. What's going on now is not deliberation, it's a PR campaign.

In her interview with Bush yesterday, ABC News's Martha Raddatz called Bush on his constant request that the public and Congress wait until the Petraeus and Crocker report to formulate a judgment. Hasn't he already decided the surge will continue for a while?

"Bush: That's going to be up to the recommendations of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. No question that the reinforcements and the surge have made a difference and we are standing in a province where it has made a significant difference. And so I'm looking forward to what they have to say as to how to continue security and at the same time enhance the reconciliation process.

"Raddatz: General Petraeus - we talked to this morning and he said he's given you his recommendation already this morning.

"Bush: Well I'm not going to give it to you now, I'm going to wait for General Petraeus to come and speak to the country. I wanted to make sure that that which he had shared with me before was something that he genuinely believed."

Later on, in his Air Force One interview, Bush fessed up somewhat: "When Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker come to Washington they will essentially be telling Congress what they will have told me."

What Bush Saw

More than four years after declaring " Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, Bush still can't make an announced visit to the war-wracked country.

But his supposed "visit to Anbar Province" was in some ways even more cynical - and accepted even more gullibly by the media - than his June 2006 visit to Baghdad. There, at least, he actually set foot on Iraqi soil.

This time, Bush visited Al-Asad Air Base - an enormous, heavily fortified American outpost for 10,000 troops that while technically in Anbar Province in fact has a 13-mile perimeter keeping Iraq - and Iraqis - at bay. Bush never left the confines of the base, known as " Camp Cupcake," for its relatively luxurious facilities, but nevertheless announced: "When you stand on the ground here in Anbar and hear from the people who live here, you can see what the future of Iraq can look like."