“I’m the decision maker,” [the president] said. “I had to come up with a way forward that precluded disaster.”

The president’s declaration comes on the heels of Nancy Pelosi’s report on a meeting she had at the White House recently. Pelosi says she asked Bush why he thought this “surge” would work when two others have failed. The president’s response: “Because I told them it had to.”

It must happen because he said it had to happen? 

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Will Iraq remain a bloody mess? Probably. But any solution that comes from us will be rejected *simply because it comes from us* - even if the exact same suggestion from an Iraqi, or someone else in the region, would be hailed as the perfect solution. That’s the depth of ill will that exists in Iraq now - and with good reason.

Let’s be blunt about this: Saddam-era Iraq was several different nations stitched together by brutal dictatorship. Without equally forceful measures, it is very likely going to return to its component parts. Remember Yugoslavia? The best outcome we can hope for is several nations that are each individually internally stable and don’t immediately declare war on each other. Some semblance of democracy would be nice too, but we can’t expect much on that front as long as the region remains in the grip of highly authoritarian religions.

P.S. Any of our various puppets and quislings who want to come with us when we leave should be permitted to do so, because it’s primarily our actions that have put them in such grave danger of being lynched if they stay while we leave.

P.P.S. Nobody wants to touch the third rail - Israel and our continuing support for it - but we can’t avoid it forever. Propping up Israel poisons everything we try to do diplomatically with any Arab country in the region.

I’m sure that these tactics have been used to some degree in tandem with the conventional warfare the military is waging, but I think that if this tactic is turned up to a higher degree… it might yield better results to take out the major aggressors. The strength of the factions have always been small cells of trustworthy individuals that are willing to die for the cause, but with this type of surgical and psychological strategy, trust would be harder to come by and hamper many of the violent operations.

As for the torn apart nation of Iraq and social reform… well, Erich’s idea of partitioning sounds okay. Not pretty, but it seems that the situation is basically evolving into this anyway.

I can already hear the concerns about creating a Kurdish state to the ire of Turkey.  That’s why I would consider maintaining “Iraq” as a formal name to a country that is partitioned as a matter of fact (like it already is already).

The problem we are facing is that Bush has turned into a dictator. He has turned his back on all military generals, all Members of Congress, all Iraqi leaders and all members of the American voting population who tell him anything contrary to what he has already decided to do. The proper way to make decisions is to: (1) consider all alternatives; and (2) weigh the alternatives to find the best one. Bush’s way to make decisions is to: (1) suppress all alternatives other than the one he has unilaterally chosen; and (2) use whatever force is needed to dictate that alternative to all concerned. Cheney, as his interview last weekend on NBC’s “Meet The Press” demonstrates, is just as bad. Were their choices successful, we would still have a problem (because of the damage they are doing to American democracy), but the fact that their choices have been disastrous should have every American screaming for change.