Two More Years Of This Shit??!

My brain can't handle writing about this now. In the meantime, here's recommended links-

AP: Bush's Iraq plan faces defiant Congress

-NY Times: Promising Troops Where They Aren’t Really Wanted

-Attytood: "E-Day": It was 40 years ago today

-LA Times: 'Gated communities' planned for Baghdad-
New U.S. strategy calls for creating zones of safety in the Iraqi capital, then working outward.

-Think Progress: Great moments in Bush’s Iraq speeches

-AP: Pentagon abandons active-duty time limit

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UPDATE (1/12): So did watch/listen to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings with Secretary Rice yesterday on C-SPAN. I thought most of the Senators did a job addressing the big questions (and pssst, NY Post, I'm sure Podhoretz and the rest there were real busted up over Sen. Boxer's remarks toward Condi, but eventually you'll have to acknowledge what a clusterfuck the White House has created). But I feel that the whole thing was masturbatory, though that's not the Senate's fault.

Listening, I was reminded of the 1966 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Vietnam, of which I have heard clips from (courtesy of 'I Can Hear It Now: The Sixties', a great news compilation hosted by Walter Cronkite). During those hearings, Senators gave a similar grilling to Johnson administration officials-- expressing regret for their roles in starting it, concern over escalation, and remarked cynicism at the administration pronouncements that things were turning around. The Senators were correct; the White House was not.

But then I remember... that war would go on to last another 8-9 years. I fear the same fate awaits us here. We're stuck repeating the same mistakes, with a 'plan' that even conservatives admit lacks logic. Congress wants out, but they're afraid of the political ramifications of their two biggest tools-- cutting funds or impeachment-- to solving the Bush problem. They do have other options to explore, but none that will penetrate the bubble around the White House. And so, we're just stuck. And I'm officially all out of energy to care.