Looks like we'll be out of Iraq soon- and if the last 4 years have demonstrated anything, the exit will be just as incompetently handled as everything else. I had hoped against hope that we could stay and some sort of miracle would happen... But nope, I don't think so. The Maliki government looks like its on the edge of complete failure. It sounds like the report on 'political milestones' is going to paint a very dark picture- which is probably why now 5 republican senators have 'flipped' more-or-less in the last few weeks. The Bush whitehouse seems completely incapable of hammering out a consensus within even just the republican party about how to manage some sort of long-term 'plan b' strategy for putting Iraq on 'life support'. It looks like we may be heading out of Iraq even before the year is out.

We should never have gone, and having gone, we should have executed the occupation with some semblance of a clue, and having failed that we should have had a well thought out exit strategy thought out about how we're going to get out without Iraq going from the outer most layer of hell to the inner most layer of hell.

Now we're in a situation where the whitehouse will dig its heels in and deny reality until the bitter end (what else is new, huh?), and the democrats joined by some 'blue state' congressional republicans terrified for their political future will forge an alliance and pull the troops out over the political 'dead body' of the executive. Thus, instead of a clean surgical extraction, I expect it to be a bloody ripping and rending the troops out- like some sort of frustrated dentist, only further weakening the rotten husk of Iraq.

There are going to be a lot, a lot of dead Iraqis in the next few years. A lot of bloody streets and bloody hands... but perhaps no hands so bloody as our own. A war based on misdirection and run with a 'faith based' strategy. Now, when we so desperately need clam political consensus, the well of discourse is so deeply poisoned there is only going to be the clashing of raw political wills and constitutional powers between branches of government. Leading to the least optimal solution for the American people and the future of American 'superpower'. Great job, BTW, to all you idiots who jumped on board with the 'coward' and 'traitor' rhetoric back when it was in vogue. Now, how the hell can we expect this country to join up in a consensus, now that we so desperately need it?

Its not just the impending genocide in Iraq that I fear. There are so many dark scenarios that begin with our exiting Iraq (in truth, began with our entry into Iraq!) and end in global destabilization, regional multi-party shooting wars, minimization of American power and even nuclear conflict...

Bad times ahead, and I don't see how we can stop it. There is no hope for consensus in America, no hope for cooler heads. Granted, invading Iraq was a dumb, dumb thing to have done... but the only thing dumber is the belief that we can just pull up and walk away without hell to pay.

First time in a long time I have said this: But damn glad I don't have a child right now.