Hatters or Hares?

Good old Bob Herbert. His column in today's New York Times nails it on the head:

"The incompetence at the highest levels of government in Washington has undermined the U.S. troops who have fought honorably and bravely in Iraq, which is why the troops are now stuck in a murderous quagmire. If a Democratic administration had conducted a war this incompetently, the Republicans in Congress would be dusting off their impeachment manuals."

"Bring 'em on," President Bush said in July of 2003 as the insurgency in Iraq picked up steam. Two years later, as the insurgency continued as strong as ever, Vice President Cheney declared that it was in its "last throes." Donald Rumsfeld insists we are making progress though he admits there are no "metrics" by which we can measure that progress.

There has been no change in strategy over those two years, and there appears to be no plan to change it now.

This sure sounds like insanity to me: denial of reality, blind adherence to a failed program, refusal to admit mistakes, and a belief that if you tell the same lies often enough, they will become truths.

And oh, let's not forget--the commander in chief says God is telling him what to do. Which possibility is more frightening--that he honestly believes it, or that he's just saying it?

The Generals--specifically Myers, Abizaid, and Casey--should in theory know the fatal consequences of ignoring reality and sticking to failed strategies in war, but they appear to be duty bound to the political agendas of the neo-conservative wing of the Republican Party.

My decades as a naval officer taught me that when things don't make sense, one of two things are going on:

--The people in charge are desperate and don't know what else to do.

--The people in charge have an agenda they're hiding from you.

I'm firmly convinced that in our Iraq situation, the latter is the case.

If you think you'll ever see American troops withdraw from Iraq, think again. The invasion of Iraq was conceived in the nineties by William Kristol, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, John Bolton and others for the specific purpose of grabbing the most geo-strategically important real estate in the Middle East. They never planned to give it back.

But I could be wrong. The people running this country and this war could all just be madder than March hares.

Scary, huh kids?