It looks like those neo-con assholes are not going quietly. They are going after the Iraq Study Group Report and it's authors with a vengeance. It's typical right-wing smear tactics, all derision and scorn and insinuations of cowardice while avoiding any rational discussion or debate. It's something to behold. Attacking those who disagree with their fascist ideologies is an area in which they excel. It's not going to work this time though. The notion of some great victory still to be had in Iraq is not going to sell well this shopping season.

The report says pretty much what any rational person can already see. Iraq is FUBAR and there really is no good way to extricate ourselves, but we absolutely must start doing so. We're spending lives and treasure trying to support a government that is non-existent outside the green zone. The people engaged in this "civil" war aren't interested in taking over the government (for now) so they are mostly ignoring it. This is the worst kind of war. The kind where both sides think they have approval from the invisible cloud-daddy to exterminate the other side. Our presence in the middle of it just throws in another cloud-daddy that the other two despise. The elder/smarter Bush knew this back in 1991 when he decided not to overthrow Saddam. Here are a couple of snippets I cherry-picked from his book A World Transformed, written with Brent Scowcroft.

While we hoped that popular revolt or coup would topple Saddam, neither the U.S. nor the countries of the region wished to see the breakup of the Iraqi state.

Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome.

Junior has had his chance to prove dad wrong. Now it's time to clean up the mess. He's going to drag his feet and kick and scream, but I don't think the American public is going to let him have his way this time.