Run Around, Bonk Heads, All Fall Down ~ Get Up & Do It Again

The nation is agog: George Bush has finally admitted that we're not winning the war in Iraq, & reverses his earlier proclamations that "We're winning, absolutely," not so long ago.

But before y'all get too excited, here's what he really said:




"We're not winning, we're not losing, " in today's Washington Post. (Title bar.)

Wouldn't that statement be the textbook definition of "quagmire?" Y'know, as in the ancient history of Vietnam? I'm just sayin'.

In other news I bet y'all didn't know you knew, George says the November elections were not votes against his failed war on Terra in Iraq.

"...[I]n a wide-ranging session in the Oval Office, the president said he interpreted the Democratic election victories six weeks ago not as a mandate to bring the U.S. involvement in Iraq to an end but as a call to find new ways to make the mission there succeed. He confirmed that he is considering a short-term surge in troops in Iraq, an option that top generals have resisted out of concern that it would not help. "

Never mind that we don't yet have a clear articulation of the word "success" (how will we know when we've reached it?); George, is, in addition to all his other underappreciated talents, a mindreader, a voodoo priest, a demigod, if you will. (Somebody had to step in & fill the vaccuum left by Karl Rove.)

He'll feel it in his anti-intellectual gut when the moment arrives.

I do have one modest suggestion: one of the indicia that Iraq is stable is when death squads stop freely running the Iraqi forces &/or feeling free to commit wholesale slaughter of members of rival political factions in the streets.

God forbid, we won't even expect you to admit it's a civil war, much less that it was precipitated by American fumbling.

Actually, I have two suggestions. Have you noted, George, that the free votes of Iranians have repudiated the extremist views of the head madman there recently? Reconsider your stubborn refusal to engage that nation in talks. Show the moderates in Iran who voted & tried to make their voices heard some support. Now would be an excellent time to do it.

Freedom, democracy, diplomatic relations & all that.