Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2004 | 9:07 a.m.
"We've got to be honest with ourselves. Right now, we're not winning. Things are getting worse ... we're in deep trouble." Words of criticism from Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry? No, the tough language actually comes from a conservative Republican, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. In recent months Hagel, a Vietnam combat veteran, has emerged as one of a growing number of Republicans who have said Bush's Iraq war and reconstruction policies are seriously off course -- and that Bush has made a mistake in failing to acknowledge the true situation there and make the necessary corrections.
Even Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the normally placid chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, last week scolded the Bush administration for its rosy prewar view that Iraqis would embrace the U.S. military and democracy. "The nonsense of that is apparent," Lugar said. "The lack of planning is apparent." Part of the frustration experienced by Lugar and other members of Congress -- both Republicans and Democrats -- is the Bush administration's glacial pace in spending money to rebuild Iraq. Only $1 billion of the $18.4 billion that Congress authorized last November for Iraq's reconstruction has been spent. Furthering the bewilderment is that the Bush White House keeps saying that things are getting better when everyone else seems to understand the situation in Iraq is deteriorating. The New York Times revealed last week that the president's own Nat ional Intelligence Estimate, which was prepared for him in July by the CIA, offered a pessimistic outlook for Iraq's immedi! ate future. It was a realistic assessment that the president, who is seeking re-election, conveniently failed to share with the rest of the nation.
Kerry has recently stepped up his criticism of Bush, saying that the president has failed to meet a basic test of leadership by not telling the American people the truth about what's really going on in Iraq. The president's continuing failure to level with the American people on the deeply troubling situation in Iraq -- warts and all -- demonstrates a troubling character flaw.
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