WASHINGTON -- As with the late A. Lincoln, so with the present
G.W. Bush -- once the right general was found and the right
strategy adopted, victory was in hand and a beleaguered president's
fortunes were restored. Doubtless President Bush is aware of the
parallel, and, perchance, he will avoid Ford's Theatre.
A curious inhibition shared by both Bush '41 and Bush '43 is to
downplay their interest in reading. Actually both are hearty
readers, certainly as compared with the general public. Earlier
this year I attended a luncheon that the President hosted at the
White House for the distinguished British historian Andrew Roberts,
whose 736-page volume, A History of the English-Speaking
Peoples, the President had polished off months before, even
before the book was released in America. He had been talking the
book up with his staff, and when I heard that my friend, Roberts,
was going to be in town, I passed that intelligence on. Bush
invited Roberts in, not only for luncheon but also to lecture the
White House staff. This president knows his history and its
significance.
Through the last three years of gloomy news he has been called
"bull-headed," but the evidence from Iraq, the economy, and various
other precincts, for instance, advances in stem-cell research,
suggests a different adjective, to wit, "resolute." Moreover, in
Iraq we see not only a resolute president but also a flexible
president. Last spring, he changed his tactics in Iraq and the
change has been successful.
Historians studying Lincoln's war have concluded that the
gravest challenge facing him was to find an effective general. In
fact, one of the most authoritative early series written about the
war was titled Lincoln Finds a General, by Kenneth P.
Williams. From the successful way things are going in the Iraq War
today, it is clear that Bush has found his general, David H.
Petraeus, and that this general has implemented a strategy
effective across an array of problems that had heretofore made a
hash of our post-invasion presence in Iraq. General Petraeus's
"surge" has pacified once violent neighborhoods and effected, in
the provinces, alliances with otherwise warlike sheiks who have
turned on al Qaeda's brutes and apparently beaten them. The surge
has even suppressed incoming weapons from Iran. Now the Hon. John
Murtha (D-Pa.), who in July called the surge a "failed policy" and
the President "delusional," has returned from the battlefield and
admitted that the "surge is working."
The economy is strong with steady growth, low unemployment, low
inflation, low interest rates, and only one sector in doubt,
housing, which in an economy as enormous as ours can be endured for
a while. The President's reluctance to fund federal research on
embryonic stem cells has been vindicated with the announcement that
scientists have discovered how to use normal skin cells to serve
their research purposes. And now comes a National Intelligence
Estimate, concluding that Iran decided to abandon a 15-year program
to develop nuclear weapons just months after our invasion of Iraq.
At the time, Libya too gave up its nuclear arms program. What
desert potentate wants to suffer the fate President Bush arranged
for Saddam Hussein?
The nature of modern broadcast media and the present rancorous
condition of partisan politics encourage a colossal din after a
president undertakes daring endeavors. Today we forget the
widespread contempt that surrounded President Harry Truman's last
years in office as he contended with the Korean War and the early
stages of the Cold War. Who remembers the sorry repute of Ronald
Reagan a year before he vacated the premises? Former White House
speechwriter Clark S. Judge, in one of the first newspaper columns
to notice the Bush revival, wrote last week, "In 1987, President
Reagan's fortunes were down." Judge noted the President's loss of
the Senate, the setback of the Bork nomination, and, of course,
Iran-Contra. "But then," Judge recalls, "the Soviets started to
give way on arms and other agreements, the economy continued to
grow despite the October stock market crash and Reagan began the
long climb in the polls that helped put the current president's
father in the Oval Office."
Well, maybe the present president's "long climb" has begun. From
a lowly 29% approval rating in September, when General Petraeus was
testifying before Congress on the surge, Mr. Bush's approval has
climbed to 36%. The Democratic Congress's approval is but 22% and
its leadership has undertaken no daring endeavors. When President
Bush finally retires to his ranch to continue his readings of
history, quite possibly the books about contemporary Washington
will make pleasant reading. Perhaps even a boulevard will be named
after him in Baghdad.
topics:
Books, Iraq, Iran, Nuclear Weapons
