Quote of the Day

"First of all, following an election that can only reasonably be viewed as an overwhelming condemnation of the President's stewardship of the Iraq war, an election that clearly indicated America's distaste with continued fighting without a clear goal or strategy for moving forward, the President is seriously contemplating -- perhaps already planning to -- not only ignore the will of the voters, but to flout it openly. In an appropriate media environment, every story about this strategy would begin, 'Demonstrating continued contempt for the vast majority of the nation, as seen by the 2006 elections and consistent opinion polling, President Bush is considering/has decided ...'

Many pundits and politicians continue to believe, against six years of evidence to the contrary, that the President will be swayed by something other than his own whims. 'Experts' predicted he would reduce troop levels for the 2004 elections, then insisted he would certainly draw down for fall 2006, and now the same people are speculating that this will be part of a strategy to get out for 2008. Uhh, no. It will take months to accomplish the kind of increase that's being discussed, and there's no reason to believe it will be reversed anytime soon. First the election results were going to be the wake-up call for a reasonable Iraq policy, then people pinned their hopes on the Iraq Study Group (has any organization gone from respected, bipartisan saviors to completely ignored in a shorter time?), and now some leaders are claiming that a troop increase will help get us out of Iraq.

The people who believe the President will act appropriately have become Charlie Brown to the President's Lucy, and I'm not sure how many times he has to pull away the ball, leaving those who had faith in him flying through the air, before they refuse to play his game."
--'AJ' at Americablog, summing up the cyclical madness that's been our Iraq debate

I'll have more on Iraq later, but first here's some war-related odds and ends...

A Pentagon report confirms the obvious, noting that violence inside Iraq is at all-time high (with nearly 1,000 attacks a week). The Pentagon, by the way, is undercounting the real numbers. To accentuate that point, the International Crisis Group warns that 'Iraq is on the brink of total disintegration and could drag its neighbors into a regional war.'

In what will only exacerbate matters, insurgents are attacking the already poor electrical infrastructure.

On the political ramifications front, long-time holdout Hillary Clinton has now conceded that neither she nor her party would have voted for this war had they known all the facts they know now. John McCain continues to be the biggest supporter of this debacle and his increasingly radical positions have got his base-- the media-- concerned that he's destroying his career in doing so.

Finally, Tim F. at Balloon Juice looks at all the groups of people the President is shunning (the American public, the ISG, etc) to stay the course. No wonder his approval rating keeps hitting new lows.

UPDATE: Sen. Reid clarifies his Sunday statements. He does not support a surge/escalation.