Hadji Don't Surf

Great idea, I think, this latest rebranding of the Iraq war as something that might possibly wind up being not absolutely 100% fucked, with a bit of luck and a strong wind-assist. You had to know last week--assuming you pay any attention whatsoever to such matters anymore, which common sense dictates you do not--that while Bush was delivering that "This just means a bad man will never murder again, and we must be careful to understand it does not mean an end to the violence," that this time it wasn't just what's left of his supporters who weren't really supposed to believe what he was saying. He didn't believe it either, and he was just fuckin' itching to break out the flight suit. There is simply no way he didn't see himself as the victor of some ritualized Single Combat for Iraqi supremacy.

So, they sit around all weekend and there's some sort of collective itch to Grab Some Gusto, get the Boss on the scene, man, we're back on a roll! Too damn bad we can't use the codpiece routine again, but as long as we're at 35% it means we still have the majority of our half behind us, and it doesn't matter that the killing goes on without a letup. Go tell the troops how much we appreciate their sacrifice when no one in the administration has ever given a fuck about anybody's sacrifice or lifted a goddam finger to ease it. Back on top!

How much ya wanna bet that when his lightless plane took off in the dark last night he had Zarqawi's gun on board, waiting to join Saddam's in that Freudian display case of his?

Then again, such a trip might garner some good press, assuming the Times hasn't completely run out of Kool-aid:

It was powerful political theater, choreographed by an experienced team that played up the drama and secrecy of the moment, and were rewarded with a day of relatively unfiltered cable news coverage. The trip, including a stealthy nighttime helicopter departure from Camp David, unfolded with the precision of a campaign event, complete with the image of the commander in chief addressing cheering American troops.

But it was also a gamble. For Mr. Bush, the new Iraqi government is a life preserver, evidence of progress toward the goal of establishing democracy in a hostile environment.

I'm sorry. Did you say something?


Is there anybody left outside of a newsroom who's still swallowing this stuff? Those 'We Got Zarqawi' parades went by pretty fast, didn't they? And seemed to be short a few trombones. How telling is it that an administration which absolutely knows the truth yet decides to ride this thing as far as it will go, for absolutely no reason? Sure, they pushed Haditha off the front pages for a couple of days, but that's as utterly meaningless for the Haditha story as it is for the future of Bush administration machinations and a "democratic" Iraq. The war began as a right-wing exercise in refighting Vietnam. It's ending--if that's what it's doing--like some large-scale replay of Bush's TANG service.