This cartoon from Stuart carlon in the WaPo Says it all.
And right on cue, the BBC has the details. US considers Iraq reinforcements
"The events of the weekend show an obvious potential for more demonstrations and more violence," the Central Command official told reporters at the Pentagon on condition of anonymity.
"We asked our staff to look at what forces might be available in quick-response mode."
But the official said the request had been made "as a matter of planning", and the US military had "adequate forces" in Iraq.
There are currently about 134,000 US troops in Iraq, the official said. They are part of the 155,000-strong coalition force.
"We always plan worse-case scenarios. And clearly if this thing got out of control over there we would have to start looking at the number of forces that we have," the official said.
And referring to the Shia protests across Iraq, he said "we can't even begin to call that a Shia uprising".
Mhmm, first comes the denial that what is, is, (it all depends what you mean by is, doesn't it?) So, we are now planning for the worst case, but we weren't planning for that worst case a few weeks ago, not even last week, but now we are, so something has changed. What is it?
And just when Bush is demanding that US troops actually begin to reduce in Iraq and that there are no more American dead after March, the powers that be in Iraq decide that that is exactly the time they will produce more Amercian dead than lately and force the US to reverse its decisions about troop numbers.
If whoever is running thing in Iraq, assuming that anyone is, can make that happen, they will have squeezed through the dam. They will be, I think the colloquial expression is fucking with America's head.
The US military is strectched to hell and back, it can't take this kind of thing for long, it is already sending in troops that are not fit, NG people who are not experienced and not fully trained and now they may have to haul back in people who were not going to be rested and refitted for another 6 months.
All of these people will be tired, pissed off and facing the rising heat of summer again. They will make more and more mistakes, mistakes they can't afford. They will massacre some Iraqis and bring down on their heads the wrath of God, or they will get trapped and killed in large numbers.
This has been coming for over a year. Now it is here. Hey there Georgie boy, whatcha gonna do now?