In the wake of the Republicans’ unexpected midterm-election triumph, it may be unfashionable and even politically dangerous for Democrats to oppose a war in Iraq. And it would certainly seem that George W. has been given a mandate to rally the troops and send them packing to finish the job that his dad started.

But at this point, the real issue isn’t whether we should do battle with Saddam Hussein, or even whether there is just cause for going to war with Iraq. After all, on both moral and political grounds, Hussein’s regime clearly does pose a threat to stability in the Middle East, to American interests, and to the world at large. In fact, it could even be argued that a state of war already exists between the United States and Iraq. It just happens to be a vaguely cold war that’s being fought in the economic sphere and at the United Nations.

So the real question is, how well is George W. doing? Or, less gently, what the hell is George W. doing? Because, if Desert Storm was the first major US war to be televised 24/7, then the cold front that’s currently taken hold of US-Iraqi relations marks the first time that a modern president has been so indecisive as to sit back and make idle threats while the various strategies for a potential military operation spill out all over the pages of the New York Times. As a result, George W. has accomplished the one thing they teach you to avoid in International Relations 101: he’s painted himself into a corner where he’s got no choice but to go to war or end up looking sillier than Michael Dukakis’s big ol’ head in a tank turret. And he’s given Saddam all the time in the world to read the daily reports about the various military strategies currently under consideration and to put his troops into the appropriate defensive positions.

And then there’s the impact that this prolonged talk of war has had on the Saudis and most of our other Arab allies: it’s given them plenty of time to get awfully cold feet. Then again, maybe there is a point to all this bumbling around. After all, if, at this point, George W. does manage to dislodge Saddam with the efficiency of a Desert Storm, he can then rightfully boast that nobody stands a chance against the US military, not even an enemy who knows how, where, and when we’re coming. And we’ll be able to tell the world that this time we did it all by ourselves. That should go over pretty well at the UN. It does make you wonder, though: whatever happened to speaking softly and carrying a big stick?

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