Radio Australia Today Editorial

George Bush: Financial Crisis or Iraq?

15 December 2008

The out-going US president has just announced that he is going to Iraq. He will undoubtedly have touched down at Baghdad by the time you’ve read this, and will have been in discussions with the Iraq government about extricating US troops from an exercise that has variously been called a war, an incursion and a quagmire.

Like President Carter in the late 70s with his Israel-Egypt accord, Nixon with his Soviet and Chinese agreements, and Clinton with his attempts at a Palestinian-Israeli pact, George W. would like to leave office knowing that his last big act was to bring peace somewhere, and preferably in a conflict that he initiated.

Don’t be surprised if he pulls it off and makes an announcement that a lot of his combat troops will be out of Iraq sometime next year.

The problem with this mission to Iraq is the fact that the auto industry back home in the US is in real trouble, and the big three makers are waiting on George Bush to do something about a rescue package. For much of last week the financial markets yo-yo’ed while sporadic news came through of a 34 billion rescue, which was then reduced to a 15 billion dollar rescue, which was then reduced to a Senate impasse with not a nickel headed the way of the folk who make Chevvies and Mustangs. At this point the car makers turned their collective noses from the Senate to the White House, and increased their warnings that at least one of them, and possibly more, could collapse unless a rescue came from the president. The president gave good signs that his hand would be extended towards Detroit. Breaths remained bated.

Then the Prez surprises everyone by announcing that he’s heading to Iraq.

I suppose the reality is that a couple of days is not going to make much of a difference when we are talking about an auto industry that has been heading the wrong way for a lot of years now. For these companies to demand the undivided attention of the leader of the free world to fix the very problems that they largely created is a bit rich, but you can understand their anxiety.

Perhaps it would have been better to get the auto resuscitation out of the way first before jetting off to fix another problem. But again George is the president. I’m not. He’s the one who is obviously fearing for his place in history. Making this trip right now will not help though, because I suspect that this trip may well be viewed by historians as having a comedic timing, and as they say in comedy, timing is everything.

– Phil