Unmoored words.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: George W. Bush and the Iraq War - Editorial

I continue to be amazed at George Bush's failure to recognize failure. His Iraq War is a debacle, and yet he keeps proclaiming that it is "advancing the cause of liberty in the Middle East" and bringing "security to our citizens."

The American people know better, with a clear majority now recognizing that the war was a mistake and that it hasn't made us safer.

The political process that Bush invested so much in fell way short. He even personally phoned the cleric Abdul Aziz Hakim during the frantic last week of negotiations over Iraq's constitution. Bush may think he's president of the world, but Hakim did not salute him. He is not a follower of George Bush. He's the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a devotee of Ayatollah Sistani's, and a friend of Iran's.

So Hakim stood his ground, not budging on the new constitution, which gives the Shiites enormous power in the south, the Kurds enormous power in the north, and the Sunnis precious little.

Undeterred by fact, Bush in his radio address on August 27 tried to gild the thistle. He said, "Iraq's main ethnic and religious groups made the courageous choice to join the political process. And together they have worked toward a democratic constitution."

But most Sunnis chose not to join the process when it began back in January, and even Bush's handpicked Sunni negotiators bolted in the end.

Again undeterred by fact, Bush said on August 28 that the Iraqi constitution is "an inspiration to all who share the universal values of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law."

This constitution, with its heavy emphasis on Islam, gives Iraqis the right to go to clerical courts governed by Sharia law. As a result, many Iraqi women will be a lot less free than they were under Saddam Hussein.

Bush is becoming increasingly distant from reality, his words unmoored from their meanings, his policy totally at sea. And even as...