Yeah, Like Medieval Surgeons

Theodoric of York: Well, I'll do everything humanly possible. Unfortunately, we barbers aren't gods. You know, medicine is not an exact science, but we are learning all the time. Why, just fifty years ago, they thought a disease like your daughter's was caused by demonic possession or witchcraft. But nowadays we know that Isabelle is suffering from an imbalance of bodily humors, perhaps caused by a toad or a small dwarf living in her stomach.

Condi admits "mistakes were made, but...:"

The U.S. diplomat met loud anti-war protests in the streets and skeptical questions about U.S. involvement in Iraq at a foreign policy salon Friday, including one about whether Washington had learned from its "mistakes over the past three years."

Rice replied that leaders would be "brain-dead" if they did not absorb the lessons of their times.

"I know we've made tactical errors, thousands of them I'm sure," Rice told an audience gathered by the British foreign policy think tank Chatham House. "But when you look back in history, what will be judged will be, did you make the right strategic decisions."...

Saddam "wasn't going anywhere without military intervention," she said.

And, funny enough, the last sentence contains the grain of truth so lacking in Team Bush's medieval barber approach: Saddam "wasn't going anywhere." That's right. Prior to 2003, the United States military, in conjunction with our allies, had the Iraqi dictator tightly boxed. North and South Iraq were designated no-fly zones (not that the pitiful remnants of the Iraqi "air force" was capable of much of anything--hell, the few planes were literally buried in the desert). The northern Kurdish region was a de facto independent nation, prevented from overt declaration only because of diplomatic necessity. US military ships patrolled the Persian Gulf. US military planes based in the region enforced the no-fly areas and ran recon mission (as well as the more than occasional bombing or strafing sortie). Any ambitions Hussein had of greater territorial acquisition were effectively neutralized.

But Team Bush demanded bloodletting. Well, they certainly got it--20,000 US casualties and counting. Iraqi deaths are swept under the "collateral damage" rug. Osama bin Laden, when not reflecting on his unbelievable good fortune, is probably laughing his head off: the world's reigning superpower is getting beat back in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And the leadership is first, too stupid to figure out what to do next, second, too stubborn to recognize their failure, and third, so cynical, vicious, and utterly incompetent that their only tactic at this point is to foist blame on the embedded media and marginalized anti-war movement.

With strategery like that, is it any wonder they botched the recovery effort after Katrina and Rita? (and shit, Rice couldn't even be bothered to reschedule her shopping spree).

Come to think of it, medieval barbers at least TRIED.