By  Abdelrahman Rashdan

Staff Writer — IslamOnline.net

When incidents in Iraq were escalating high and death toll insanely rising, American policy makers were thinking of an exit strategy. A strategy that would satisfy the equation: least causalities, most security. Bush's Iraq exit strategy, apparently, didn't see its way out to light; instead, it seems that Plan B was a solo-exit strategy: how can Bush exit himself safely out of his two disastrous terms.

Since his inauguration in 2000, President George W. Bush has carried the world through the jungles of war policy. The World is no where near "safer" with the lame-duck president exiting the political stage; Plan B disregarded the world's safety as it only saw Bush's public image the prime goal.

Obviously, plan implementation started more than a year before now. The one-in-four American that was satisfied with the president's actions alerted Washington policy makers. Bush needed some polishing; he needed "any" sort of white mark in his black-filled-political-wonder as a president. And here came Annapolis, G-20, and numerous other attempts in Iraq.

Sparkling Bush

On an American flag in the fancy Annapolis conference hall the slogan was embroidered: "Don't give up the ship!" Bush needed to send a message that he is in with all what he got to solve the most fundamental and central conflict in the Middle East: Palestine/Israel. Bush has been giving a blind eye to the Israeli assaults against Palestinians since day one in office, and this call was already too late; two of the main parties at the peace talks were "imperfects" and he himself is a lame-duck. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was not representing the Palestinians —  at least if we consider voting as a fair tool for representation — and on the Israeli side sat the Venograd victim Prime-minister Ehud Olmert.

There was no way that this conference would bring any tangible solution to the 60-years-old conflict. Even, it was clear to observers back then before the conference was over; "I doubt, however, that we're going to see him deeply involved in Israeli-Palestinian mediation after the meeting is over," Fellow Brookings scholar Tamara Cofman Wittes notes. "This peace process is designed to serve other ends," he added. It was simple public event where laughs and handshakes can be exchanged and camera flashes would keep the hall lightening bright with Bush's public face, he wrote.

One year later, Israel is committing one of the most savage atrocities in the history against Gaza and President Mahmoud Abbas' hand swelling off from Israeli handshakes.

Even in designing such "Plan B" means, it was done poorly. At least, it should have been implemented short before a new American president is in, blame would have chased the new.

It seems that PR people in Washington were on a new training; G-20 Summit with its huge world-map banner and Bush glowing — from camera flashes again — in the middle of the world leaders was nothing more than an economic concert where Bush can lead a chorus of unable-to-cooperate states' heads.

An economic crisis that started in the Unites States and under the eye-sight of President Bush drew a big black mark in his history that he could not erase.

Iraq and Afghanistan are out of the trying list. It seems that these two cases went widely out of hand that Plan B is short of including them.

"Sarah Palin-like President"

The "Sarah Palin-like President" had shallow political experience. Even though Palin was wondering if Africa was a country, it would not be fair to lift Bush up in a comparison with her. "I'm going to say 'more insulting to Palin.' [if Bush was compared to Palin] Palin's something of a laughingstock, but Bush is a villain. I mean, he wrecked the world economy, he led to millions of Iraqis being forced to flee their homes, he is a total disaster and a disgrace. Palin gave bad answers in TV interviews. There's no real comparison," Matthew Yglesias, Center for American Progress Action Fund fellow, asserts.

Bush was rather depending on the hawkish administration. "Vice"-president Dick Cheney was there to fill the "personality vacuum, character vacuum, details vacuum, experience vacuum," as Lawrence Wilkerson, top aide and later chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, puts it.

Abandoning the Sinking Ship

Yet, when the ship appeared to be sinking, all crew fetched their own live jackets; Cheney found himself tied to the ship with a hard chain. Collin Powell, thank you for the "But What if he [Obama] were [Muslim]?" but your little anthrax tube in the Security Council back in 2003 did deceive a lot and now still killing "Muslims" in thousands in Iraq. The White House press secretary Scott McClellan preferred to give his briefing in his book: What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception to blast the Bush administration after his resignation in 2006. Education Secretary Rod Paige, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, among others, ran to the exit door.

Bush's Plan B was for himself only. Rice, former National Security Advisor and current Secretary of State, already didn't have big plans after leaving the White House. "I have no desire to be shadow secretary of state," Rice mentioned in a Washington Post interview; she will return to Stanford University.

Did public image plans benefit Bush? Well, it could have been so, but  the perfectly aimed flying shoes of Montazer Al-Zaidi in the Iraq press conference smeared it at end.

Maybe Bush now will be only remembered for his body fitness (his fast ducking), which I don't see qualifying for presidency.

Note: Although the Iraqi shoe missed Bush's face, it slapped the American flag; Obama will have a lot to do for a flag wash.

IOL