Friends,
Since I returned from Iraq in the summer of 2003, I have been saying this to anyone who will listen. Now, I hope you all listen too. The main reason for our victory this week, and it was a great victory, is only going to get worse. Despite Rumsfeld's departure, despite SPeaker Pelosi, despite everything, Iraq is now in the cold hard grip of Civil war, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Bush will never acknowledge this, but even Cheney might say the words eventually.
I hate to tell you all, but this war has not even begun. It is going to get horrific, and I am fully aware of what people are going through there. Dozens of bodies showing up with evidence of torture, reprisals and revenge killings and on and on and on.
This war is going to destroy not just Iraq, it could still blow up the entire mid-East. This Baker plan, well, did you see the picture of these guys? A bunch of old white men deciding the future of Mesopotamia? It's post-WWI all over again; poor decisions them are still with us. I don't think anyone on the ground is going to listen to what we say. Which is going to point up the worst part of this whole thing: we have lost control of the situation. Hunter Thompson used to say that politics is the art of controlling your environment. Well, we have failed at that in Iraq. It is over. We are no longer in control, having ceded control to al-Maliki and his chums in the Mehdi army. Bush said that the government of Iraq qill tell us when to go, so we have ceded control over their fate to the al-Maliki govt. as well.
Folks, that soldier is still not found. Iranians can come and go as they please. And there is no Iraq army to prevent it. Things are going to get so bad we will have to beg them to let us out. It's gonna be awful.
The solution? I don't know what is worse, that there is only one path now or that Bush will NEVER take it. The solution is a grand regional meeting with Iran, Syria, the Iraqi insurgent groups, the govt. and US. We can make this work, but we will have to give full recognition to the Iranians, with a toothless inspection regime, full relations with Syria with joint border patrols to seal both those borders. It will require swallowing hard and inviting Ahmedinajad and Assad to the White House.
Lastly, I think the war is very likely it will destroy the Republican party, too. The hard liners will never forgive Bush for doing the above and the mainstreet types, the few that remain will never for give him for NOT doing it. He will lose the military and thier families, too.
This is a rambling not well thought out diary, but I wanted to get it on record: Rumsfeld is not the problem and removing him will not solve anything. This thing is doomed and it is going to take us down with it.