Current mood:

cynical

Doing the Same Thing and Expecting Different Results...
... is the definition of a bad joke.

Yesterday, Bush announced his new plan for Iraq. Sounded a lot like the old plan for Iraq. Completely absent from his speech was any mention of a political solution. Might has clearly not made much right. Sending more troops isn't going to change much. More people will die and the Iraq government will still be in shambles. Without a political solution, fighting will only result in more fighting.

If he was trying to resell us the old war, Bush failed miserably. If you're going to sell something old by pretending it's new, you have to do it right. Bush should have contacted Steve Jobs.

This week also marked Apple big announcement. The iPhone is an amalgamation of old ideas packaged in a new way. We have phones, we have web browsers, we have portable music/media players. The iPhone combines all three in a new compelling way that is exciting and easy to sell.

See, Bush's big mistake is taking only one idea and trying to repackage it in a not so compelling or exciting manner. There are plenty of old ideas that he could have drawn from. Using diplomacy in the region is a pretty old idea that could use a slick face-lift. Rebuilding the infrastructure that we obliterated when we first came in was an idea I heard a few years ago. Training the Iraqis to run their own country could be good. These are three pretty old ideas that could have been repackaged and sold to us last night. All we got was more troops? Please.

It looks like it's going to take another administration or two for us to really change course. The jury's out on how much Congress can actually shape the war. I'm hopeful. I'm hoping that this new Congress will be a significant thorn in Bush's side. But I suspect it's going to be at least 2009 or hell, even 2013 before we see something really new.