Stupid or Incompetent? Not good either way.

Digby interprets GWB's "left field bellicose talk about Syria and Iran in his speech to the nation"... and it ain't pretty.

Bush's speech and recent actions cannot be interpreted any other way than they have been. If he didn't mean to signal that he was ratcheting up the war in the mid-east to include Iran and Syria, then he has made another huge blunder by using language and taking actions that clearly indicate he is.

[...]

Bush's speech and recent actions cannot be interpreted any other way than they have been. If he didn't mean to signal that he was ratcheting up the war in the mid-east to include Iran and Syria, then he has made another huge blunder by using language and taking actions that clearly indicate he is.

[...]

There are only two feasible interpretations of what the president is doing. He is either trying to provoke the Iranians or he and his Mayberry Machiavellis had no idea what his words were conveying. I could believe either. If it was just the latest in a long series of tactical and strategic blunders then we are in the soup now and it will take a combination of luck and skill to get us out of it --- I don't have much hope. If the president was rattling the sabre at Iran and Syria and preparing the ground for expanding the war, then I have even less. These people are deluded and incompetent on a level not seen since the final days of Rome.

This is very bad.