Politics trumps policy

Bush's declaration that the 2004 Presidential election constituted "an accountability moment" in his Iraq policy would be merely laughable if this guy weren't still President of the United States. Does Bush really believe that any American election could vindicate (or repudiate) his Iraq policies?

Bush may have won the election because the majority of Americans approved of his Iraq policies -- though given that a sizeable majority of Americans think the war was "a mistake" it seems more likely that Bush won despite these opinions. But what does that have to do with policy accountability? Even if Americans considered Bush's future policies in Iraq likely to be better than those of a putative President Kerry, does that mean that they approved of every aspect of what's happened in Iraq, or even that they think the war was worth it at all?

Does he know that Americans think the whatever security gains we have achieved by invading Iraq have not been worth it in terms of American casualties -- to say nothing of the loss of prestige and national credibility, nor of the fact that many more Americans will die in the Mesopotamian sands before we get to leave that hellhole?

Sadly, I don't have enough time right now to expose the absurdity of this way of thinking, but let's just say that it's a caricature of the Bush regime's pathological tendency to let politics trump policy.