They will escape earth's atmosphere in seconds, moving at unbelievable speed toward their penultimate target—a wormhole near Alpha Centauri. They will plunge into this wormhole and emerge into the Neocon Alternate Universe, never to be approached again by earthly beings.
U.S. diplomat sees some progress in Iraq
[Ambassador Ryan Crocker] also warned lawmakers against relying heavily on a list of benchmarks to measure gains made in Iraq. Earlier this year, Congress asked the White House to report on progress made in 18 target areas for political, security and diplomatic reforms; last week, the administration reported mixed results.
"The longer I am here, the more I am persuaded that progress in Iraq cannot be analyzed solely in terms of these discreet, precisely defined benchmarks because, in many cases, these benchmarks do not serve as reliable measures of everything that is important — Iraqi attitudes toward each other and their willingness to work toward political reconciliation," Crocker said.
Maybe they'll ask Chertoff to bring his gut over to Iraq to assess Iraqi attitudes and their sincerity in searching for political compromise. I'm sure al Maliki can round up some suitable subjects for interviews.
I wonder if conservatives will be as laid back about assessing the success of the next president's national health care plan. Will the absence of precise benchmarks, metrics, firm schedules and oversight by the GAO be acceptable? Can Democratic proponents simply rely on getting a feel for patient attitudes toward their care and patient willingness to accept the level of care they are getting? I guess conservatives won't mind if we don't track the actual number of deaths resulting from medical error or the length of time patients must wait to see a doctor or have a recommended treatment. No, they don't want any of that bean counting.
Pay no attention to the fact that floods of red ink and red blood are failing to put out the fires of insurgency in Iraq.
Oh, and in case you wondered whether this administration EVER fails to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, rest assured, they don't.
Lugar said he was concerned that the administration was not planning for an eventual drawdown of troops despite mounting pressure from American voters and politicians that the U.S. should leave Iraq.
"We need to lay the groundwork for alternatives so that when the president and Congress move to a new plan it can be implemented safely and rapidly," Lugar told Crocker.
Crocker said he was not engaged in any contingency planning and was focused solely on Bush's current Iraq strategy.
Who can imagine that there might someday be a situation where we won't have enough troops to continue the surge for as long as the Boy King desires? Not the Bush administration, that's for sure.