Show Your Work

TBogg does Rovian math and confirms that, yes, we are indeed screwed.

Unpopular President + generals hate Rumsfeld + Plamegate + Crowd boos Dick Cheney + Midterm elections + Ridiculous Assertion Later To Be Disproved + Botched immigration reform + Rising gas prices = Iraq Iran Attack!

It's fun to make fun, but I do believe we are screwed.

The Bush-Cheney-Rummy mantra of more stick, less carrot is once again upon us. While I was against the Iraq war from day one, while I immediately saw through the lies of an administration panting for war, while I never believed Saddam was the Hitler the administration made him out to be, I still held out the tiniest of tiny hopes that the path to war Bush-Cheney-Rummy set us on was one big, dramatic, and brilliant (if it had worked) way to get Saddam to capitulate to our disarming demands. And up until the bombs starting dropping, and our troops began moving, the we-will-bomb-the-crap-out-of-you-if-you-don't-listen strategy had worked. Inspectors were on the ground and Saddam was answering questions he hadn't faced in years. It could have been brilliant brinkmanship. Until, of course, we took that final step of actually going to war. If Bush-Cheney-Rummy had just been smart enough to pull back, to pull out right at the brink, then maybe they would be heroes for the game of chicken they had played. But there was no pulling out. The birth of a new Iraq was our responsibility and the cost of college was never calculated.

This all brings me back around to Iran. This time that small fraction of hope I held out before the bombs started dropping is gone. Gone and buried deep within my liberal heart. Today these men are clearly madmen. Madmen who operate on a plane of consciousness I cannot even comprehend.

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