It's pretty obvious why Bush is racheting up his rhetoric and making dire predictions. He knows there are still people who think we could have "won" the Vietnam war if we hadn't been stabbed in the back. So he's establishing that theme for this war.

Bush won't draw down the troops during his administration (maybe by a few thousand, but we'll still have well over 150,000 troops and private security there when the new president is elected). So when President Obama begins a more thorough draw down, Bush and his supporters will be able to say they were right, no matter what happens in Iraq.

If Iraq becomes more peaceful with only 10,000 American troops, then Bush and his supporters will say that he was right to invade and "stay the course." If Iraq blows up into a full sectarian civil war after the real withdrawal, then Bush and his supporters will say that he was right in his dire predictions about what will happen when we leave. They'll say "We were stabbed in the back again!" He's making more noise about the disaster that will happen when we leave because he now thinks disaster is a more likely result. He no longer thinks we'll be "victorious," even on his terms.

But he's trying to establish a legacy so that "history" (or at least conservative historians) will be able to say he was right no matter what happens. It's been a rhetorical strategy in this administration all along. If the economy improves, it's because the tax cuts work. If it doesn't it means we need more tax cuts, but the opposition wouldn't let it happen. If they screw up disaster relief, it's because they were right all along about big government being inefficient.

It's all very self-serving. Kaplan's big mistake is in believing that Bush cares about the country. All he cares about is himself. Luckily, most Americans see this now.

You hit the nail on the head. Bush's unwillingness to grasp reality is less a function of his stupidity or stubborness than his unparalelled instinct for self-preservation. It's the same game he's been playing his whole presidency--never accept blame OR responsibility when things go wrong (that's for losers); never change course (that shows weakness); always take credit for what goes right (the perogative of the privileged). Bush has played out his hand so now he's got to bluff his way through the next 6 months. As he sees it, that's his only choice-- because the ONLY thing that matters to him is retaining the tattered remains of his "legacy."

"He knows there are still people who think we could have "won" the Vietnam war if we hadn't been stabbed in the back."

I just got a chill down my spine. Wasn't that exactly the justification the Nazi party used to "deal" with the Jews during the 30s and 40s? That Germany would have won the Great War, if the Jews hadn't stabbed them in the back?

"So when President Obama"

Proof the above poster is living in a fairy tale or high on drugs.

Not even close.

The Germans used corrupted versions of Hegel and of Wagner in order to pull upon the 600 year old German belief that the Jews are some how taking money from the poor, even though they were really a huge economic support for the poor, just so that the Nazis could justify stealing Jewish property to add to its socialistic programs.

Remember, Nazis believed in government control of business and believed in social welfare programs. They weren't called National Socialists without a reason.