A paucity of policy

President George W. Bush is fighting on two fronts and losing heavily on both. In Iraq the situation is brutally obvious: in more than four years the US military is unable to secure peace or even a suburb outside the Green Zone. On the home front the situation is less stark but increasingly grim for the president. In the latest political skirmish, the US House of Representatives voted to withdraw almost all American troops from Iraq by next spring.

Bush has threatened to veto the vote, as he has done on two previous occasions. He has ruled out any change in the war policy before September when the US military in Iraq will report on the "surge". The trouble for Bush is that he no longer sets the agenda; he cannot dictate the timetable. Irrelevance is fast becoming his fate, the worst fate for any president.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that Bush does not know what he is talking about. His speeches are dotted with references that have long lost their meaning: hope, victory, long-haul, frontline of terror. At times Bush looks bewildered as if he is trying to, but just cannot, understand what is going on.

The only hope for Bush is to admit that his Iraq policy has failed, and seek a solution with the Democrats and Republicans in Congress on crafting a new way forward. The problem is not just Iraq. On a number of issues - wiretapping, outing CIA agents, secret detentions - the White House has lost the moral high ground so vital to persuade. It is not a White House under siege but worse, a White House being ignored because of its ineptitude. America needs better leadership than it is getting and Iraq deserves better friends than this White House.