Iraq

With President Bush and Dick Cheney touring the country giving speeches about how well things are going in Iraq, perhaps the administration should be reading the State Department's "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" which contains the following paragraph. From The Chicago Tribune: (I know I said I never read it, but I found it via Froomkin)

“Bombings, executions, killings, kidnappings, shootings, and intimidation were a daily occurrence throughout all regions and sectors of society. An illustrative list of these attacks, even a highly selective one, could scarcely reflect the broad dimension of the violence.”

Wow, that sounds great. I didn't know it was going that well. Seriously though, I think the American people have realized now that we can't put the genie back in the bottle. The problem is not that Bush won't solve the problem, it's that he can't solve the problem.

Look, what we are doing in Iraq is tantamount to bailing out the Titanic with a teacup. We don't have the manpower to fix it, Bush has alienated our allies who won't be giving us any manpower anytime soon, and the manpower we are getting from the Iraqis is both corrupt and complicit. There is no viable solution at this time. It was a one shot deal, and Bush blew it.

The other day Bush said he is spending his political capital on the war. I have news for him, he has spent all of his political capital, he's now running a political capital spending deficit that will have to be paid not by a future president, but by the current republican held Congress with a balloon payment due November 7th.