"All is well! All is well! All is--KABOOM!
Today, once again, reality ran headlong into the administration's mouthful of dung on Iraq.
I noted in my diary yesterday, Can't keep the lies straight on Iraqi army status, General George Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, continues to peddle a convoy full of lies on Iraqi troop readiness, to the point of contradicting a number of his own, previous statements.
Today, it was George Bush's turn to say that "down is up and up is down" in Iraq. But, alas, like Casey's fibbery yesterday, real life found a way to expose Karl Rove's latest excuse for the Iraq trainwreck as just more crap...
Barrage of attacks kill 47 in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A barrage of coordinated bomb and rocket attacks on eastern Baghdad neighborhoods killed at least 47 people and wounded more than 200 within half an hour on Thursday, police and hospital officials said.
The latest spasm of violence -- which included explosives planted in apartments, car bombs and several rocket and mortar attacks on mainly Shiite neighborhoods in the capital -- came even as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Iraqi forces should have control over most of the country by year's end.
And this on a day when puppetmasters Rove and Cheney once again trotted out their Fearless Leader Doll® to mutter these banalities to the American Legion in Salt Lake City:
The Baghdad Security Plan is still in its early stages. We cannot expect immediate success. Yet, the initial results are encouraging. According to one military report, a Sunni man in a diverse Baghdad neighborhood said this about the Shia soldiers on patrol: "Their image has changed. Now you feel they're there to protect you." Over the coming weeks and months, the operation will expand throughout Baghdad. until Iraq's democratic government is in full control of its capital.
A page right out of the Ronald Reagan playbook, eh? "I received a letter from a little girl in Lebanon..."
Yesterday, while Casey was fibbing his way through another press conference, bombs were going off all over the capitol:
Iraq army seen fit in 18 months, bombs kill 50
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombers killed nearly 50 Iraqis on Wednesday, mostly in Baghdad, but the top U.S. commander said a security drive in the capital was making progress and local forces could largely be running Iraq within 12 to 18 months.
General George Casey declined to be drawn on what that might mean for how many American troops could go home, and when.
As I pointed out in yesterday's diary (referenced, above) Casey predicted in July 2005 that Iraqi army readiness would be at such a state by Spring 2006 that 135,000 American troops would likely come home this year.
And now he's predicting that Iraqi troops will be ready in "12 to 18 months?"
Is it just me, or is that going backwards?
Of course, the most notable change that Bush has mouthed for his handlers, both in today's speech and in his inane press conference of last week, is that the administration has completely dropped the "When-the-Iraqis-stand-up-we'll-stand-down" rhetoric in favor of the new and improved "freedom agenda."
From today's pablum:
The freedom agenda is based upon our deepest ideals and our vital interests. Americans believe that every person, of every religion, on every continent, has the right to determine his or her own destiny. We believe that freedom is a gift from an almighty God, beyond any power on Earth to take away.
Same old crap in a bright, shiny new bag. This new garbage comes on the heels of Bush's presser proclamation that we "will not leave Iraq as long as I am President."
Now, if I was running campaigns for Democrats, I would be trotting out that line in every campaign appearance. This war is not popular and the thought of another two-plus years of it will make voters angry -- especially when laid up against previous administration "stand up/stand down" claims based on bogus measures of Iraqi troop readiness.
I don't think the American public is going to buy the baloney this time. They see the abyss. Fifty dead here, 50 dead there. Five Americans here, eight Americans there. Hundreds of billions of dollars here, another hundred billion there. It all adds up.
What doesn't add up is the pronouncements of our Fearless Leader Doll® that we must stay until... well... until... until he's gone, apparently.
Just like everything in else in his life, Bush will leave his mess for someone else to clean up.
Some things never change.