For his part, Bush reiterated that he will only be satisfied with "complete victory," which suggests he is resolved to break the back of the Sunni resistance at whatever cost.
The Bush administration also wants to keep a tight hold on information that might put the U.S. war effort in a negative light. That means the American people can expect to be shielded from many of the worst secrets in Iraq, much as the White House has continued to fight release of video showing abuses at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq.
According to U.S. military experts I've interviewed, a great deal of emphasis in the future will be on "perception management," the concept of shaping how both Iraqis and the American people perceive the events in Iraq.
This media manipulation, combined with secretive "death squads," adds even more to the recipe necessary for war-time atrocities that might cross over into genocide.
Other warning flags were raised in a New Yorker article by veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, whose sources cited both Bush's messianic commitment to stay the course in Iraq and to a shift toward a reliance on aerial bombardment of "enemy" targets, as U.S. troop levels begin to decline.
"A key element of the drawdown plans, not mentioned in the President's public statements, is that the departing American troops will be replaced by American airpower," Hersh wrote. "Quick, deadly strikes by U.S. warplanes are seen as a way to improve dramatically the combat capability of even the weakest Iraqi combat units.
"The danger, military experts have told me, is that, while the number of American casualties would decrease as ground troops are withdrawn, the overall level of violence and the number of Iraqi fatalities would increase unless there are stringent controls over who bombs what."
One of the risks is that the power to target U.S. air attacks would be put in the hands of Iraq's Shiite-controlled government, which could then rain down American death and destruction from the air on Sunnis and other rivals.
An example of this kind of horror occurred in the early days of the war in March 2003 when the U.S. military relied on a false report from a supposed informant that Saddam Hussein was eating at a Baghdad restaurant. The restaurant was bombed, killing 14 civilians, including seven children, though Hussein was not there.
The Sunnis also got a taste of U.S. destruction from the air during the assault on Fallujah in April 2004. With U.S. warplanes shattering the city with 500-pound bombs, hundreds of Iraqis - many of them civilians - died. There were so many dead that the city's soccer field was turned into a mass grave.
God's 'Man'
Hersh's sources said, too, that Bush's fundamentalist Christianity has added another complication to the U.S. pursuit of a realistic strategy in Iraq.
"Bush's closest advisers have long been aware of the religious nature of his policy commitments," Hersh wrote. "In recent interviews, one former senior official, who served in Bush's first term, spoke extensively about the connection between the President's religious faith and his view of the war in Iraq.
"After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the former official said, he was told that Bush felt that 'God put me here' to deal with the war on terror. The President's belief was fortified by the Republican sweep in the 2002 congressional elections; Bush saw the victory as a purposeful message from God that 'he's the man,' the former official said. Publicly, Bush depicted his reelection (in 2004) as a referendum on the war; privately he spoke of it as another manifestation of divine purpose." [New Yorker, Dec. 5, 2005]
Caught up in his divine mission, Bush has repeatedly rejected cautionary advice about Iraq, dating back to pre-invasion warnings from the likes of Gen. Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser under President George H.W. Bush. Even now, military advisers say Bush gets angry when they bring him negative news about Iraq.
This mix of Bush's religious zeal and his refusal to accept reality adds another layer of danger as the United States slouches toward potential genocide in Iraq.
The Bush administration also wants to keep a tight hold on information that might put the U.S. war effort in a negative light. That means the American people can expect to be shielded from many of the worst secrets in Iraq, much as the White House has continued to fight release of video showing abuses at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run prisons in Iraq.
According to U.S. military experts I've interviewed, a great deal of emphasis in the future will be on "perception management," the concept of shaping how both Iraqis and the American people perceive the events in Iraq.
This media manipulation, combined with secretive "death squads," adds even more to the recipe necessary for war-time atrocities that might cross over into genocide.
"A key element of the drawdown plans, not mentioned in the President's public statements, is that the departing American troops will be replaced by American airpower," Hersh wrote. "Quick, deadly strikes by U.S. warplanes are seen as a way to improve dramatically the combat capability of even the weakest Iraqi combat units.
"The danger, military experts have told me, is that, while the number of American casualties would decrease as ground troops are withdrawn, the overall level of violence and the number of Iraqi fatalities would increase unless there are stringent controls over who bombs what."
One of the risks is that the power to target U.S. air attacks would be put in the hands of Iraq's Shiite-controlled government, which could then rain down American death and destruction from the air on Sunnis and other rivals.
An example of this kind of horror occurred in the early days of the war in March 2003 when the U.S. military relied on a false report from a supposed informant that Saddam Hussein was eating at a Baghdad restaurant. The restaurant was bombed, killing 14 civilians, including seven children, though Hussein was not there.
The Sunnis also got a taste of U.S. destruction from the air during the assault on Fallujah in April 2004. With U.S. warplanes shattering the city with 500-pound bombs, hundreds of Iraqis - many of them civilians - died. There were so many dead that the city's soccer field was turned into a mass grave.
God's 'Man'
Hersh's sources said, too, that Bush's fundamentalist Christianity has added another complication to the U.S. pursuit of a realistic strategy in Iraq.
"Bush's closest advisers have long been aware of the religious nature of his policy commitments," Hersh wrote. "In recent interviews, one former senior official, who served in Bush's first term, spoke extensively about the connection between the President's religious faith and his view of the war in Iraq.
"After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the former official said, he was told that Bush felt that 'God put me here' to deal with the war on terror. The President's belief was fortified by the Republican sweep in the 2002 congressional elections; Bush saw the victory as a purposeful message from God that 'he's the man,' the former official said. Publicly, Bush depicted his reelection (in 2004) as a referendum on the war; privately he spoke of it as another manifestation of divine purpose." [New Yorker, Dec. 5, 2005]
Caught up in his divine mission, Bush has repeatedly rejected cautionary advice about Iraq, dating back to pre-invasion warnings from the likes of Gen. Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser under President George H.W. Bush. Even now, military advisers say Bush gets angry when they bring him negative news about Iraq.
This mix of Bush's religious zeal and his refusal to accept reality adds another layer of danger as the United States slouches toward potential genocide in Iraq.
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