American Weakness courtesy of Bush/Cheney

Joe in DC at AmericaBlog makes the same sort of point that I made last weekend about Bush sneaking into Baghdad and what that says about how well things are going in Iraq. Cheney has claimed that if the American troops were to leave Iraq it would make America look weak. Joe responds:

Cheney's fears of the United States looking weak have already been realized -- and it's because of the failed policies of the Bush/Cheney administration. The Iraq debacle and the actions of the past few weeks have reinforced that perception to the rest of the world.

What does it say when the leaders of the world's "lone superpower" (as Dan Bartlett described us repeatedly the other day on the Today Show) practically declared a national holiday because we killed one bad-ass terrorist? Al-zawqari was an extremely dangerous and bad man. He got what he deserved. But by making it seem like it took the entire concentration of the world's "lone superpower" to take out one terror leader in a country we occupy, well, frankly, that made us look weak -- and terrorists like Al-zarqawi strong. All this is set against the backdrop of a country that cannot locate the one terror leader, Osama Bin Laden, who killed Americans on American soil.

Also, Bush's secret photo op trip to was considered a great p.r. move here. Of course, it was viewed solely through a political lens. What message did it send to the rest of the world that the President of the U.S. had to sneak in to a country he claimed to have vanquished three years ago? If Iraq was the success Bush claimed it would be, there would have been a parade from the airport to downtown Baghdad. Instead, the President was covered with body armor -- and he didn't even tell his good friend, the Iraqi Prime Minister, that he was coming. That's supposed to show strength to the world?

The Bush team is obsessed with not making America look weak. Their failures in Iraq have produced just that result.