by Richard Stern

My friend, Peter Kovler, visiting from Washington, D.C., yesterday remembered hearing President Bush talking to a small group about four years ago. "It was frightening," he said. "He couldn't finish a sentence. Aides tried to throw him words, he didn't--couldn't!--pick them up. He seemed dyslexic. I almost felt sorry for him. I certainly felt sorry and terrified for the country." Practise, practise, practise gets you to Carnegie Hall, and Bush, like an NFL quarterback, has had lots of practise talk since then. Interviewed by Jim Lehrer two days ago, he was fluent. His syntax didn't falter, his word choice was excellent, he was in verbal command of his intentions, and only once or twice did a response perish in the verbal desert of his uncertainty. One such had to do with unequal war sacrifice. Bush's quavering response suggested that universal American anxiety about Iraq constituted a kind of general tax, and thus a general sacrifice. Otherwise, he was on the solid presidential ground of self-confidence. His well-practised thesis: everyone agrees we can't fail, therefore, I chose, after much conferring and thinking, the best means of succeeding. If anyone has a better one, speak up. Our fine generals suggested the proper troop level and defined the mission. They and I were wrong not to send in more troops after the bombing of the Samorra mosque, but at that time we were hamstrung by our Iraqi partner. Now the Iraqis have assured us that together, our soldiers can go into any Baghdad neighborhood, chase out and hunt down its murderous disturbers, then leave sufficient force behind to insure that those living there will enjoy a peaceful existence. Reconstruction projects employing Iraqis will be launched, and newly energized and enfranchised citizens will be evermore grateful to the government which has brought them this fine new life. In time, Americans can leave Iraq to the Iraqis. If we left now, extremists on both sides would kill each other at a much greater rate, al Qaeda would grow amidst the turmoil, oil revenues would give it power to launch murderous, perhaps atomic attacks at us, and generations of Americans would face problems far worse than those we face now. Lehrer tried to find cracks in the presidential façade. The new, literate Bush (now reading at Professor Kissinger's suggestion--Horne's account of the French collapse in Algeria) was as uncrackable, confident and courteous as Louis Quatorze. Lehrer did not explore the apres moi, le deluge theme.