Bush speech at Annapolis: Plan for Victory

President Bush gave a fairly decent speech at Annapolis, rolling out a new strategy for coping with Iraq called the "Plan for Victory". This move is an implicit admission by the administration that they screwed up and now they really do need to come up with a plan to succeed in Iraq. But a new set of words alone won't complete the mission.

I don't think this new plan is really any different than the old plan (as it was), but more a pouring of old wine in new bottles since they know that they are facing a public relations disaster here at home. It's simply a new marketing campaign to fit the same old facts, or at least the representation of the facts that the administration uses.

So, give them an "A" for attempting to turn the ship and articulating the problem a little better, but give them a "C" overall since we'll need to "see" some results from this so-called "plan". And I have to give them a "D" for delaying the release of the plan for so long. They *should* have released the plan before the Senate had their vote to "approve" the invasion of Iraq back in 2002/2003.

An unclassified version of the "official" plan is in a document entitled "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq."

The big problem is that this new "plan" is a unilateral U.S. plan. These guys just don't get it. People want a plan that involves the UN, the EU, Russia, other countries in the Middle East. As it is, this new "plan" will be a flop. Expect yet another new "plan" every six months or so, until the administration learns its lesson and pursues a multi-lateral approach. I mean, Geez, shouldn't the Iraqi government have had a chance to review and approve the plan and speak publicly about it first?

-- Jack Krupansky