WP Cohen: Civil War? What Civil War?

[grytpype]

Looks like Cohen forgot to take his crazy pills this morning.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/07/AR2006080700931.html

Civil War? What Civil War?

By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, August 8, 2006; Page A21

...

Whatever the case, we now have to understand that uttering the word "Iraq" does to Bush administration officials what a touch of tequila does to Mel Gibson. I could spend the rest of this column quoting Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others on what would happen when GI Joe got to Baghdad or why the war had to be fought in the first place. The collected quotes are funny in one context, sad and infuriating in another: the playing of taps, the folding of the flag and the required lie about "a hero's death."

I dutifully read the news about Iraq. But I recognize most administration statements as lies or, if by accident the actual truth, a mere snapshot of a moment that will change over time. More troops one day, fewer the next. We have this town one day, we don't the next. Iraqi troops are up to snuff; oops, no they're not. This is the babble of chaos, the telltale rhetoric of defeat.

I share the concern of what would happen to Iraq if the United States pulled out precipitously. I share the concern over what will happen if the United States stays. I share the concern of those who say that no matter whether it stays or goes the outcome will be the same. I especially share the concern of those who say that the Bush administration does not have a plan to disengage and that rather than confront the immensity of its mistake -- I pity Donald Rumsfeld if he should ever lose the gift of denial -- it thinks that this or that adaptation to new conditions will somehow change the outcome. It will not. The end was set at the beginning. It is better that it come sooner rather than later.

[Tin Man]

1. Cohen nails it, especially his final paragraph

Cohen is absolutely right: the seeds for the unfolding Iraqi civil war were planted the moment the Sadam was toppled from power. I especially appreciate his final words in the piece: "The end was set at the beginning. It is better that it come sooner rather than later." Perfectly stated - the whole Iraq fiasco, summed up in only 2 sentences.

And like the story of Hans Brinker and the dike, the Neocon Cabal twists themselves into ever greater contortions of logic as they seek to stem a tide of unhappy realities flowing from Iraq. Consider Condoleeza Rice and her recent insistance that Iraq can't be undergoing a civil war, because the unity government hasn't fallen. Never mind the fact that the "unity goverment" would more accurately be characterized as a theater production, a show, within the safety of the Green Zone; while everywhere else within Iraq, goverment functions are largely fractured along the same ethnic and sectarian divisions that are driving the civil war. In its current implementation, the Iraqi "government" performs more as a virtual space within which the competing sects and tribes maneuver to augment their positions on the actual battlefields of the ongoing civil war.

The bottom line is this: the situation in Iraq has become hopelessly FUBAR, and the situation isn't going to improve anytime for YEARS to come - but this won't stop the Neocon Cabal from continuing to "polish the turd" while hoping the democracy fairy will suddenly materialize. In the meantime, they'll continue to piss on us while claiming it's just raining...

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

2. K & R. Insightful.

[ixion]

3. Second that...

Cohen can be on again/off again, but this one is spot on.