Automatic Bob: The Bob Herbert Column Generator

Senseless War
By "Automatic Bob" Herbert

Mr. Bush cannot explain our mission in Iraq and has nothing resembling an exit strategy.

Condoleezza Rice, for example, gave us nightmare fantasies of mushroom clouds and declared on television that aluminum tubes seized en route to Iraq "were only really suited for nuclear weapons programs." Colin Powell is heading toward the exit, to be replaced by Condoleezza Rice, who did her best to petrify the nation with loose talk about mushroom clouds.

George W. Bush has no strategy, no real plan, for winning the war in Iraq. So we're stuck in a murderous quagmire without even the suggestion of an end in sight. As the situation in Iraq moves from bad to worse, the president, based on his public comments, seems to be edging further and further from reality.

When the Army chief of staff, Gen. Eric Shinseki, dared to say publicly that several hundred thousand troops would be needed to occupy Iraq, he was ridiculed by the administration and his career was brought to a close.

A president can stay out of step with reality only so long. Eventually there's a political price to pay.

The sad truth about Iraq is that one year after President Bush gaudily proclaimed victory with his Top Gun moment aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, we don't know what we're doing in Iraq. Mr. Bush's Top Gun moment aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln was two and a half years ago. It was another example of the president in fantasyland. This guy is something. Remember his Top Gun moment aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln? And his famous taunt -- "Bring 'em on" -- to the insurgents in Iraq?

A genuine sense of alarm can actually be detected in the reality-resistant hierarchy of the Bush administration.

You have to wonder whether reality ever comes knocking on George W. Bush's door.