War Forever!

Supporters of the war have latched onto news of potential re-Baathification (see analysis- here and here) as a sign that political reconciliation is happening in Iraq. As usual, the devil is the details, and many experts of the situation there see numerous problems with the law. Decide for yourself at the links above.

Andrew Sullivan posted on this too earlier this week. After discussing this news, he takes a larger look at where we stand-

"Since the failure of nerve by the opposition last summer, the US has effectively decided to occupy Iraq for the rest of our lives. We had a choice: ten months or ten years, and by default we picked the latter - and, according to McCain, it's more like a hundred years. This is very hard to undo, given the quicksand of a Muslim country that requires you either get out quickly or settle in for a looong occupation. Whether the Iraq that emerges is a meaningful state, or whether it is an effectively dismembered hodge-podge of regions held together by US troops and local forces, becomes less relevant once you accept Bush's premise that the US has absorbed the area as a client state for the indefinite future. He has had five years to entrench this into the global order and American politics and, simply by not budging, he has changed the facts on the ground. Iraq, I suspect, is now America's for ever - something Iraqis will always resent but never be able to reverse.

Some withdrawal of troops may well be possible in the years ahead, if we're lucky...

...Welcome to Empire: an endless, grueling slog in treacherous places where no one loves us, but which we cannot leave. Fewer casualties perhaps (and that, of course, is a wonderful thing); but more debt, more money, more treasure, more risk, more Muslim resentment and more blowback in the end. But marginally cheaper oil in the long run, perhaps. Lovely, isn't it?"

The depressing part? Read his post. He's actually optimistic about how things are going.