Anyone Notice A Pattern Here?

"I don't think anybody anticipated the level of violence that we've encountered."
-Vice President Dick "Last Throes" Cheney (June 19, 2006)

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
-President "Heckuva Job, Brownie" Bush (September 1, 2005)

Why I'm beginning to think this administration is monstrously incompetent.

But hey, that's just me...

[Related links of the latest good news (?) news from Iraq:
-NY Times editorial: A Long Road Ahead in Iraq
-Editor and Publisher: 'Wash Post' Obtains Shocking Memo from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
-AP: Bodies of 2 missing GIs recovered in Iraq
-NY Times: Iraq Debate in Senate Turns Emotional
-TruthDig: Truthdigger of the Week: John Murtha
-Talking Points Memo: Post 1 and Post 2]

Money quote from Josh Marshall-

Here is a claim that needs to be blown apart. Get real: the administration isn't trying to seize the offensive on Iraq. The war is dismally unpopular and on that basic judgment opinions are largely congealed and fast congealing. They know that. What the White House is doing is trying to knock the opposition off its stride and scare them out of their own offensive, which is to hold the administration accountable and press for a change of direction on Iraq.

Of course, the White House is going to try to call any change of direction "Cut and Run". That's their angle. That's their card. If you can't stand in the debate in the face of that, far better to leave all foreign policy entirely off the table and contest the election on minimum wage or college loans...

...But the White House is making and has made its stand quite clear -- American troops in Iraq at least through 2009, and probably for the indefinite future; and no reevaluation of the basic concept of why we went in. So, a good idea to start with and we'll stay there more or less forever. (Saying we'll be there until 2009 and then having no plan to leave after that = forever.) That position is so out of sync with where the country is and so disastrous for the country's security and future prosperity, that I don't think anyone should be afraid to go to the country opposing it. The truth is that the president doesn't have any policy beside denial about how we got into this jam.

What he said- Democrats should not be afraid to expose this position for what it is.




[PS- At least they're remembering to finish the job in Afghanistan-
U.S. Airstrikes Rise In Afghanistan as Fighting Intensifies:
In Response to More Aggressive Taliban, Attacks Are Double Those in Iraq War]