Bush: The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary and it is just

I suppose he had to acknowledge the five year anniversary of the greatest US foreign policy blunder of all time in some way, and it was always unlikely that he was going to deliver a mea culpa, but even by Bush's standards, the speech he gave was simply fantastical.

"Five years into this battle, there is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning, and whether we can win it," he said. "The answers are clear to me: removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision - and this is a fight Americans must win. Because we acted, the world is better and the United States of America is safer."

Speaking to a contingent of troops at the Pentagon, he claimed his decision last January to increase the number of US troops in Iraq from 124,000 to 154,000 - the surge strategy - had "opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror".

He added: "For the terrorists, Iraq was supposed to be the place where al-Qaida rallied Arab masses to drive America out. Instead, Iraq has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al-Qaida out. In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden ... And the significance of this development cannot be overstated."

He is, of course, ignoring the fact that prior to the invasion there was no al Qaeda presence in Iraq, so enlisting Arabs to fight against al Qaeda can hardly have been part of the original plan.

What he is attempting to spin as a victory is the fact that, as the US was finding it impossible to stop the violence which was spreading throughout Iraq, it decided to fund both sides of a civil war, and it eventually ended up funding some of the Sunni groups that it had previously been battling and persuaded them to take up arms against al Qaeda, who represent a tiny fraction of the forces at work in Iraq.

This is what Bush is reduced to hailing as victory. The Sunni's agreed to this as they were being heavily defeated by their Shia rivals and what we are now witnessing is nothing more than a ceasefire in which the Sunni's can rearm and take stock.

Bush seeks to create the impression of peace on the ground in order to proclaim eventual victory, but anyone paying attention knows that the civil war has merely taken pause, the battle for Iraq is far from over. And the US has merely opted to arm both sides, rather than to fight an insurgency.

Of course, that's not how Bush is seeking to portray this.

"The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just. And with your courage, the battle in Iraq will end in victory."

The battle in Iraq was, of course, not remotely necessary, so it's highly debatable that it could ever be called noble and just.

It was an illegal war based on a series of lies and fought for reasons which are still unclear. Was it for oil? For Israel? To establish a permanent US presence in the Middle East to replace the bases lost in Saudi Arabia? Who bloody knows?

But, lacking a clear motive for why the war was fought in the first place, it really becomes impossible to talk of it in the terms which Bush now employs. But then, as his time in office draws to a close, he is a more isolated figure than at any other time in his presidency.

He now resembles that eccentric old uncle who still shouts that the war was right whilst everyone around him smiles and serves tea, keeping a watchful eye lest he piss himself.

Bush did not mention the failure to find Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction, the stated reason for war, but returned to the theme, warning that a hasty US withdrawal could lead to an emboldened al-Qaida, with access to Iraq's oil resources, pursuing "its ambitions to acquire weapons of mass destruction to attack America and other free nations".

He really has become fantastical, ranting on when no-one really listens to him anymore. The stench of failure now emanating from the man is becoming overwhelming.

Somebody open a window.

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Tags: Bush, Iraq war, five year anniversary, al Qaeda, Sunni, Shia