Meanwhile, In Iraq...

I have no time to do any of these individual stories justice, so here's a quick rundown...

Our government may not be preparing for a U.S. departure from Iraq, but Iraq's is-

Iraq's military is drawing up plans on how to cope if U.S.-led forces leave the country quickly, the defense minister said Monday.

The statement by Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi marked the first time a senior Iraqi official has spoken publicly about the possibility of a quick end to the U.S.-led mission.

It was unclear if the remarks were more than routine contingency planning...

And yet, simultaneously, there's reports that the people actually running Iraq are mostly away or MIA. And there are also other reports that the White House's 'Plan B' (odd, I thought we were up to Plan Q or R by now) might be "using Iraq as a springboard and rationale for an American military strike into Iran," and "strong-arming the admittedly faltering government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki out of office and replacing Maliki with a U.S.-anointed Iraqi savior", although there's less and less time now for them to pull off that scam.

And, of course, all of this was easily predictable in 2002/2003, except it was totally unpatriotic back then to listen to the people trying to sound the alarm bells-

Two intelligence assessments from January 2003 predicted that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and subsequent U.S. occupation of Iraq could lead to internal violence and provide a boost to Islamic extremists and terrorists in the region, according to congressional sources and former intelligence officials familiar with the prewar studies...

Finally, the Washington Post reports that the administration is giving the Iraq Study Group report a second look (on benchmarks, regional diplomacy, etc). "They are coming our way," Hamilton said in a recent interview. I'll believe it when I see it, Jim.

Overwhelmed? Me too. I should go to bed.