Spinning the Bloodshed in Basra

Bush's argument about political progress is a tough one to make, given how far Iraq is from many of the achievements he promised when he announced the surge more than a year ago. See, for background, my April 26 column, Keep Your Eye on the Benchmarks, and come back for more truth-squadding tomorrow.

Is Anyone Listening?

Peter Baker blogs for The Washington Post that Bush "no longer commands the stage the way he once did. John McCain's foreign policy address leads the news and the latest crossfire between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton is played out again and again on the evening talk shows. Bush, on the other hand, finds it increasingly difficult to get anyone to pay attention.

"So it goes in the eighth year of a presidency that, to judge by polls at least, has pretty well worn out its welcome. Bush is still the commander in chief fighting two wars. He is still working on important issues, such as Middle East peace. Next week, he heads to Europe for a summit that will likely expand NATO further into the Balkans and then he will visit Russia to try to calm fears of a new Cold War. Yet it often feels as if the energy has been drained from the White House while the venerable old mansion awaits its next tenant. . . .

"Many news organizations have diverted top correspondents and travel budgets away from the White House to the presidential campaign. Only three newspapers sent reporters with Bush here today, the wire services have cut back on their traveling complements and the main broadcast networks are here mainly protectively in case he does or says something surprising, which the ultra-disciplined Bush rarely does. . . .

"The White House has tried to arrange 'exclusive' interviews with high-profile correspondents and low-profile news outlets to keep the president out there."

At the Pentagon

Robert Burns writes for the Associated Press: "Behind the Pentagon's closed doors, U.S. military leaders told President Bush [on Wednesday] they are worried about the Iraq war's mounting strain on troops and their families. But they indicated they'd go along with a brief halt in pulling out troops this summer.

"The Joint Chiefs of Staff did say senior commanders in Iraq should make more frequent assessments of security conditions, an idea that appeared aimed at increasing pressure for more rapid troop reductions. . . .

"The Joint Chiefs are particularly concerned about Afghanistan and an increasingly active Taliban insurgency."

Bush made no statement after the visit.

Opinion Watch

The Louisville Courier-Journal editorial board writes: "Five years and 4,000 American deaths into the war, President Bush has run through pretty much every reason that Dick Cheney could give him for America's military presence in Iraq. None has made much sense.

"But Monday, in once again prattling on about his strategy of 'making sure that we achieve victory,' he invoked his weakest argument for fighting indefinitely: 'I will vow so long as I'm president to make sure that those lives were not lost in vain.'

"In other words, the President is fully willing to sacrifice more young Americans in an effort to achieve an after-the-fact justification for casualties in a conflict that was unnecessary."