From "Great Expectations" to none.

"Rice: Iraq benchmarks could derail next war bill. Bush will not support punishment of Iraqi government, secretary says."

In January, 2007, FOX News ran this story. "Report: Bush's Iraq Strategy to Include Political Benchmarks." " President Bush will detail his new Iraq strategy in an address to the nation"

Now, Bush doesn't want to talk to al-Sadr, doesn't like Iran or Syria, and is afraid of Saudi Arabian support of Sunnis.

And al-Maliki has no apparent ability to govern the country. None. Obviously the idea of the Iraqis "standing up" is not reality oriented. They are not "standing up". al-Maliki is clearly a puppet of the US without enough support within his "democracy" to govern without American military presence. He is not the leader of any Iraqi democracy. The fact that the capital is still unsafe for him outside of the Green Zone is evidence of that.

And the United States does not have the political will to insert the million or so troops it would take to maintain iron control over the country.

And if it did, it couldn't get back the 2 million educated and professional Iraqis who have fled.

The Bush strategy is to drag on and on and on until someone else has guts enough to acknowledge reality and an interest in saving lives.

And then Bush will scream that they "lost" the situation.

How this is allowed to drag on is beyond my comprehension.

Arf