Options


Team Bush has lots of "choices"--but they're still putting lipstick on a pig:

The acknowledgment by the United States Army spokesman in Iraq that the latest plan to secure Baghdad has faltered leaves President Bush with some of the ugliest choices he has yet faced in the war.

He can once again order a rearrangement of American forces inside the country, as he did in August, when American commanders declared that newly trained Iraqi forces would “clear and hold” neighborhoods with backup support from redeployed American forces. That strategy collapsed within a month, frequently forcing the Americans to take the lead, making them prime targets.

There is no assurance, though, that another redeployment of those forces will reduce the casualty rate, which has been unusually high in recent weeks, senior military and administration officials say. The toll comes just before midterm elections, in which even many of his own party have given up arguing that progress is being made or that the killing will soon slow.

Or Mr. Bush can reassess the strategy itself, perhaps listening to those advisers — including some members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, the advisory commission charged with coming up with new strategies for Iraq — who say that he needs to redefine the “victory” that he again on Thursday declared was his goal.

One official providing advice to the president noted on Thursday that while Mr. Bush still insists his goal is an Iraq that “can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself,” he has already dropped most references to creating a flourishing democracy in the heart of the Middle East.

In other words, they'll try to patch it up as best they can, splash on a fresh coat of paint, and hope some sucker will either buy or otherwise take it in trade...Mission Accomplished for the deeply cynical, and barely a mention of the death and destruction wrought for a sole purpose: so Shrub Boy could prance around, puff his puny chest out and bellow/smirk "I'm a war preznit!"

Nice going.

Again, though, why is anyone surprised? Shrub has a HISTORY of this sort of behavior. Only, in the past, his daddy could bail him out when shit and fan made their inevitable encounter. Daddy can't fix the mess this time.

And we're the ones who will have to pay.