The president acutally said this yesterday, during a speech to the Associated General Contractors of America in Washington:
And the definition of success as I described is sectarian violence down. Success is not, no violence. There are parts of our own country that have got a certain level of violence to it. But success is a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives. And that’s what we’re trying to achieve.
It’s received some press coverage — though not nearly enough. Violence, he is saying, is OK. It will be there. It is a fact of life.
There is violence in East St. Louis and Newark and Trenton — and that’s just the way it is, this president says. “Success is a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives.”
Comfortable? Acceptable? Humans are remarkably adaptive and will find ways to get along no matter what the circumstances. So the Iraqis live through the violence and find ways to make due — same as those Americans who are stuck in drug-scarred neighborhoods. That doesn’t make it right.
Then, this is pretty standard from a president who has shown little compassion for America’s cities, who pretty much ignored New Orleans in the days immediately after the hurricane hit, who has only visited New York for fundraisers and photo-ops (and a political convention), who rarely ventures outside of his comfort zone.
In many ways, this comment is like Sen. John McCain’s stroll through the Baghdad market — or like Bush I’s attempt to buy socks during the 1992 presidential campaign — another example of how out of touch the president and his administration is.
It also is another example of the president’s shifting rationale for the war and for remaining in Iraq — we’ve moved from weapons of mass destruction to deposing Saddam to imposing democracy to maintaining order to … to what? And that’s the point. What exactly are we hoping to accomplish?
It’s time to get out.
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Hank Kalet 