Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Three strikes and you're out?

Time for a new team: "For a long time, anyone suggesting analogies with Vietnam was ridiculed. But Iraq optimists have, by my count, already declared victory three times. First there was 'Mission Accomplished' - followed by an escalating insurgency. Then there was the capture of Saddam - followed by April's bloody uprising. Finally there was the furtive transfer of formal sovereignty to Ayad Allawi, with implausible claims that this showed progress - a fantasy exploded by the guns of August....

Here's another thought. President Bush says that the troubles in Iraq are the result of unanticipated 'catastrophic success.' But that catastrophe was predicted by many experts. Mr. Cordesman says their warnings were ignored because we have 'the weakest and most ineffective National Security Council in post-war American history,' giving control to 'a small group of neoconservative ideologues' who 'shaped a war without any realistic understanding or plans for shaping a peace.'

Yesterday Mr. Bush, who took a 'winning the war on terror' bus tour just a few months ago, conceded that 'I don't think you can win' the war on terror. But he hasn't changed the national security adviser, nor has he dismissed even one of the ideologues who got us into this no-win situation. Rather than concede that he made mistakes, he's sticking with people who will, if they get the chance, lead us into two, three, many quagmires."