GWB's "Plan for Victory"

[BigV]

The speech.

The plan.

As I absorb more of this information, I am finding a common thread in the ever-changing words from this administration. In '03 it was "Mission Accomplished" and in '05 it is "A Plan For Victory".

Then:


Now:


While I understand the position that a strict timetable for the withdrawal of troops is a poor strategic choice, the reasons for why it has come to this stage are more interesting to me. When I am after my kids to do their chores, I'm often repelled with a volley of excuses, after this show, I have to save my game, I'm on the phone, it's dark outside, I did it yesterday, and my favorite, I will. Excuse, excuse, excuse.

You've all heard the same old song. I may have sung a few verses myself, back in the day. But the dynamic is the same, delay, maybe enough to get out of the job, offer something that distracts, shift attention and responsibility off them and anywhere else. When I get the most tired of parrying these attempts at negotiation, I set a time limit, after which either the work is done, or the consequence takes effect. The beauty of this situation is that it puts the responsibility on the kid to meet their obligations. And there's a timetable for doing so. And clear consequences for failure. The pressure is off of me to nag them into compliance, and onto them to manage their own priorities. And the objective, implacable clock ticks away the intervening minutes. The most beautiful useful thing about the clock is that it is measurable. Now is the time, is the work done? No more of the, I will, After this show, Just a minute.

An objective, measurable threshold is the very thing that motivates my kids to action, and the very thing that this administration fears most. By having something measurable, it faces the real possibility of having its performance evaluated objectively as a failure.

This is present in the speech made today too. All subjective, all personal, all unmeasurable, all unrefutable "pillars" of the plan for victory. The reason it is unsatisfying to hear these platitudes is that the "political capital" that President Bush once claimed he had, is long gone. His credibility is ruined. People don't trust him, because he's earned a reputation for not talking straight, to put it politely. And as with my kids, when they've given me reason to doubt their likelihood to follow through with their responsisbilities, I demand greater assurances. This is GWB's dilema now. This plan for victory may well become the history of the eventual success. But we want to know now what is going on, what will happen next.

There aren't any good reasons for measurable metrics and timeframes to be rejected. We could argue about unreasonable timeframes, but not that an end to our occupation exists. We could argue about unfair measurements, but not that our progress should not be measured. Rest assured, Mr President, your success is measured every day. If you will not compromise with us on what those measures will be, we will choose our own measures. I doubt you'll be happy with them.