On Such Ground
On August 23, 1864, Abraham Lincoln had his entire cabinet sign a piece of paper. It was folded in such a way that those asked to sign it could not read the words that were written upon it. The so-called "blind memorandum" was not disclosed until after the election of 1864 returned Lincoln to the White House. The simple, short memorandum read as follows:
"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be elected. Then it will be my duty to so cooperate with he President elect as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured this election on such ground that he cannot save it afterwards."
There is an obvious parallel today in this news.
In remarks to the traveling press, delivered from the Third Army operation command center here, Bush said that negotiations were about to begin on a long-term strategic partnership with the Iraqi government modeled on the accords the United States has with Kuwait and many other countries. Crocker, who flew in from Baghdad with Petraeus to meet with the president, elaborated: "We're putting our team together now, making preparations in Washington," he told reporters. "The Iraqis are doing the same. And in the few weeks ahead, we would expect to get together to start this negotiating process." The target date for concluding the agreement is July, says Gen. Doug Lute, Bush's Iraq coordinator in the White House–in other words, just in time for the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
Most significant of all, the new partnership deal with Iraq, including a status of forces agreement that would then replace the existing Security Council mandate authorizing the presence of the U.S.-led multinational forces in Iraq, will become a sworn obligation for the next president. It will become just another piece of the complex global security framework involving a hundred or so countries with which Washington now has bilateral defense or security cooperation agreements. Last month, Sen. Hillary Clinton urged Bush not to commit to any such agreement without congressional approval. The president said nothing about that on Saturday, but Lute said last fall that the Iraqi agreement would not likely rise to the level of a formal treaty requiring Senate ratification. Even so, it would be difficult if not impossible for future presidents to unilaterally breach such a pact.
No, I am not saying that George W. Bush is a reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln, nor am I saying that this move will ensure victory in Iraq. What I am saying is that Bush will have ensured that it is not easy for whoever next lives in the White House to walk away from what has been accomplished in Iraq - and much that is positive has been accomplished, despite the screeching from the left on this. They declared the surge a defeat before it even began, they declared the war lost. Yet General Petraeus proved them wrong.
By Snooper, January 12, 2008 @ 9:26 pm
Well said.
By old_dawg, January 13, 2008 @ 8:27 am
Those of us that work in the business knew that this would eventually come about. Iraq is in such a strategic location that we can’t afford not to have some bases there.
By martian, January 13, 2008 @ 2:23 pm
I have a liberal nephew (yes, there are some in every family) who calls George W. Bush the dumbest man who ever sat in the White House. This seems to be a mantra of the far left – that GWB is dumb. I have to laugh at that every time I see the President pull off another maneuver like this one – it’s brilliant!