I think the White House and DoD get it. I just don't think they care. Democracy in Iraq is not what they are after. They are after selling the idea that democracy was brought to Iraq so that Shrub can get re-elected. That way they can steal for four more years. The Corporal and the Lieutenant would probably be better Presidents and Vice-Presidents than the incumbents. To be fair, and with no disrespect intended towards either the Corporal or the Lieutenant, I have a pair of sweat socks that would do a better job of governing that the P and VP.

Flashback to '66: The E-4s and 0-2s in the bush knew the whole thing was going South at speed, but then, the E-4s and O-2s at the tip of the spear usually are the first to know.
Wonder how long it's going to take to get us to the equivalent of '69 and '70, when EVERYBODY on the ground knew we were going through the motions so Nixon could get re-elected
I was going to say that smart money is on Karl pulling everybody out by 9/30 and turning it over to whatever puppet government they can cobble together, but since the head of the IGC got vaporized this morning, that may not be possible.
This is indeed Vietnam on Speed.

There was a talking head on Fox a few minutes ago (they have Fox on TVs set up all over the building where I work) saying that the handover date is not changed by the death of the Pres of the Governing Council. It won't be as late as November before most people have realized that the Ship of State is being run aground. Gotta vote Kerry. At least he has experience in safely beaching a boat.

I think the obviousness of the politicization of every aspect of the current president's term is getting through. It isn't even necessary for Dems to stay on message. "Bush is incompetent" is the message, and Bush's actions speak louder than Janet Jackson's left booby.

Iraq is a complete fiasco. It will remain a fiasco and we won't even get the oil the Bushies were there to steal. Any puppet government will fall in short order. This isn't the 70s. It's harder to set up a Shah Pahlavi in that region now.

And we all know what happened to the Shah anyway.

Isn’t there a saying that U.S. policy is often made by the privates? If there isn’t, we recall someone saying something to that effect last spring.

If we give them an Iraqi version of the Magna Charta we can expect them to be ready for democratic independence in another 500 years.

The Magna Charta was signed in 1215 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776. We can knock off 50 years because of the existence of communications.

We can't seem to teach high school students in the US how the government is supposed to work, but we think we can convince people with three millennia of civilization how to form a nation.

The statements of those on the ground get the pulse of the effort.

As for Abu Gharib, the privates made the policy, according to Bushco(irony). They had sergeants, lt. , col., even brig. gen. watching them as well.

The 'few bad apples' are the problem there,whoever the whistleblowers were are their notion of the problem of course and the most likely video expert was already beheaded. At ease, resume lightstick and broomhandle rear guard action...

1. Timely
   
2. Strategery
   
3. Webb wins
   
4. Huh?
   
5. Bunnypants in Bagdad
   
6. Outage
   
7. Filthy Lucre Watch
   
8. Playing the numbers
   
9. My letter to Countdown
   
10. Jefferson's Nigerian Scams