CHECKMATE:

Bush Moves Iraq Goalposts All Over Field (Molly Ivins, September 22, 2002, Common Dreams)

Don't you just hate it when the bad guys agree to do what we want them to? If that's not a good reason to go in and take out Saddam, name one.

But our Fearless Leader, not one to be deterred from war merely by getting what he wants, promptly moved the goalposts and issued a new list of demands Iraq must meet, including paying reparations to Kuwait.

If you step back and look at this debate, it just gets stranger and stranger. For one thing, all the evidence is that the administration has already made up its mind and we're going into Iraq this winter. President Bush went to the United Nations and demanded they back him, he's going to Congress to demand they back him, and there it is. This is not a debate, it's Bush in his "You're either with us or against us" mode. It is not a discussion of whether invading Iraq is either necessary or wise. [...]

The downside to taking on Hussein is not so much getting him out as what happens next. Diplomacy is often likened to chess — you have to be able to think several moves ahead. There's no evidence the administration has thought past Step One.

Ms Ivins has made a classic pundit's mistake: she thinks she understands George W. Bush because she's read her own columns about him. If she could step back for a moment and actually listen to what he says, she'd never have doubted that the point of all this is to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
Posted by Orrin Judd at September 23, 2002 12:04 PM