Through the Looking Glass With GWB

If anyone needed convincing that President Bush is on another planet when it comes to the Iraq war – and there still are a few of you out there – Thursday was a keeper.

Astoundingly . . . No wait, at this late date nothing the president says is astounding . . . he asserted at a press conference notable for its Through the Looking Glass quality that "the fight can still be won."

The president again batted aside some tough questions with answers so inane that the Queen of Hearts would have blushed.

The president again cheered the "progress" of an Iraqi government that has met – actually in most cases only partially meet -- less than half of the already watered-down benchmarks for getting its act together so the U.S. can get out.

The president again asserted that Al Qaeda in Iraq is the same group that attacked the homeland on 9/11 although its creation was a result of the American invasion. (Meanwhile, the original Al Qaeda has returned to its formerly robust self because its only foe is a NATO-led force in Afghanistan that is substantially smaller than the U.S. troops chasing the phantoms of that other Al Qaeda in Iraq.)

The president again asserted that Al Qaeda is the greatest threat in Iraq although his own security bigs rank it well down the list.

The president again scolded Congress for doing its job, which partisan grandstanding aside is a pretty fair approximation of what it is doing these days: Listening to the large and growing majority of Americans who want the troops out now – or at least some sign of an orderly plan to get them out.

And that is exactly what their president refuses to do.

Photograph by Saul Loeb/Agence France Presse