Mark A. R. Kleiman: "About f*cking time" Dep't

Mark A. R. Kleiman: "About f*cking time" Dep't: "Really, you can't make this stuff up. From today's WaPo:



"At his meeting with his war cabinet yesterday, Bush reviewed the latest developments but reported no new direction. The administration has set up seven interagency groups focused on its main priorities in Iraq. These are providing security and training Iraqi forces, building national political institutions, restoring energy and other services, tackling economic problems, establishing rule of law, enlisting international help, and improving strategic communications.



"Now they're figuring out what the priority areas are and setting up groups to work on them? Now?



"Maybe if they'd been doing that back in the summer of 2003 -- when Rummy was dismissing the looting as no biggie and telling his subordinates he didn't care whether Iraqi civil servants got paid or not -- instead of making 'Mission Accomplished' banners for the President to stand in front of, we might have actually accomplished the mission.



"Of course, that would have required giving the need to make peace work in Iraq precedence over patronage and crony capitalism in the management of the occupation. The problem with despising 'reality' and those who pay attention to it is that sometimes reality bites back.



"The latest pro-Bush talking point is that all opposition to the war is based on nothing but Bush-hatred, and that those who now oppose the war would support it were it being waged under a different President. That omits the possibility that, under a different President, it would have been waged more competently."



Bush has lost the war in Iraq, and there really is nothing, which can be done about it now. In terms of a coming political storm, this creates some difficulty for Bush. Bush would welcome a simple-minded anti-war movement. Bush can blame all his failures on the left. Its not logical, but it is the kind of rhetoric, which works with people on the Right, who believe in the efficacy of prayer, and such. To them, Bush's failure in Iraq may well be because unnamed, invisible people on the Left are "rooting for" the insurgents in Iraq or Al Quaeda. People like Mark A. R. Kleiman are not pacifists, and they despise protest movements on general principle. But, they also do not like the total waste of losing a war, through corruption and incompetence. If those, who oppose the Iraq war on pacifist or other anti-war principle, can make common cause with the Kleimans of this world, then a political storm capable of sweeping Bush and his Republican co-conspirators out of power, is possible.



Those, who are anti-war are far less numerous, persuasive or politically potent than those, who oppose losing a war, by means of corruption and incompetence.