This just in from AP via Joshua Marshall -- Bush cites Israel as model for Iraq [6/29 update: See the exact quote and scathing comments on this from Juan Cole today]
NEWPORT, R.I. — President Bush held up Israel as a model for defining success in Iraq, saying Thursday the U.S. goal there is not to eliminate attacks but to enable a democracy that can function despite violence.
With his Iraq policy under increasing criticism from the public and lawmakers in both parties, Bush went to the U.S. Naval War College to declare progress and plead for patience. At the same time, his top national security went to Capitol Hill to hear out Republican critics.
This is Marshall's comment
We'll have succeeded in Iraq when it's like Israel.
Where do they come up with these guys? Which speech writer wrote that? Sometimes stupidity rises to the level of a high crime.
It is just madness. How is that going sound in Iraq? And how is it going to sound in Palestine? What has happened recently in Israel is that with the backing of the US they have de facto split the Arabs into two states and are jumping in on one side of the resulting civil war.
I am sure that this statement will get flashed around the Arab world like lightning. Talk about "emboldening" people. Why on earth would Bush want to link the two situations? And doing so right now in a way that implies that things are going well in Israel just takes the cake.