"Our Long National Nightmare Continues"

In the shadow of General Petreus' long awaited report on the status of the Iraqi troop 'surge', George Packer in The New Yorker has written a sobering - and depressing - assessment of our way forward. At the end of the piece, he dismally concludes:

"The war was born in the original sins of deceptive salesmanship, divisive politics, and wishful thinking about the aftermath. The bitterness of that history continues to undermine American interests in Iraq and the Middle East today. President Bush will have his victory at any cost, with one eye on his next Churchillian speech and the other on his place in history, leaving the implementation of his war policy to an Administration that works at cross purposes with itself, promising freedom and delivering rubble. The opposition is plainly eager to hang a defeat around his neck and move on from what it always regarded as Bush’s war. Before the U.S. can persuade the world to unite around a shared responsibility for Iraq, Americans will have to do it first. The problems created by the war will require solutions that don’t belong to a single political party or President: the rise of Iranian power, the emergence of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the radicalization of populations, the huge refugee crisis, the damage to a new generation of Iraqis who are growing up amid the unimaginable. Whenever this country decides that the bloody experience in Iraq requires the departure of American troops, complete disengagement will be neither desirable nor possible. We might want to be rid of Iraq, but Iraq won’t let it happen." (The New Yorker, 9/17/07)

Packer also draws the obvious conclusion that though many would like to make comparisons between our involvement in Iraq and the Vietnam war, the consequences of our folly this time around will be much more damaging.

The Timeline

Well, another slick little gear-shift by the Bush administration this week. According to The Washington Post:

"President Bush plans to formally embrace the drawdown of U.S. forces as recommended by Petraeus yesterday, U.S. officials said today. In a speech scheduled for Thursday at 9 p.m., Bush will tell the nation he plans to end the 30,000-troop surge into Iraq by next summer but will caution that those and further cuts depend on continued progress in Iraq, the officials said."

Now mind you, if the 30,000 troop surge is ended by next summer, there will still be 130,000+ troops still there and at least that many private contractors. Additionally, ending the surge by next summer sounds an awful lot like Bush is setting a timeline. Yes, a timeline, that word that Bush heaped such disdain on after the new Democratic majority arrived in town last year. That word that practically caused Cheney and other neo-con think-tankers to spit blood.

Whether he's trying to steal the Democrats' thunder by talking timelines and troop cuts or simply making decisions in a political (and reality) vacuum, the fact remains that Bush won't be doing anything substantive to clean up his own mess. That will be up to the next resident of 1600 Penn. ave.