Bush and the Repubs are rebuilding their political cover...

Let's be clear. We are not getting out of Iraq anytime soon. In his press conference with Blair this morning, Bush said it quite clearly. He believes we are "succeeding" in Iraq. We are only "succeeding" slower than he had hoped. One must ask, If this is success, what will failure look like?

Mr Bush's job will not be easy. He will have to convince the Repubs running for reelection in 2008 that we must persevere in Iraq and that we will be victorious. However, most of these folks are still running scared from the most recent election. Their electoral survival is more important than the survival of Iraq, in the final analysis.

It did not take long for Mr Bush to slap down the ISG plan. Pretending that there were other "competing" plans that must be studied before any decisions can be made was just another deceptive scheme by this Administration. There is little doubt that Mr Bush plans on holding on thru 2008 and until a new President will inherit the mess.

Because if there is one thing the Repubs are good at, it is spin and PR. Once the Democrats take over the mess in Mesopotamia, the Repubs will find a way to find blame for the Democrats and excuses for themselves. The one thing this ISG plan did, was to give them cover. Because, one of the main statements in the plan was that we could not leave Iraq in its present state.

This puts the new majority Democrats in a precarious position. If they call for immediate withdrawal, they are disagreeing with not only Bush, but with the ISG plan also. Bush will play this game, as Americans continue to die, right up until the next election. This appears to be his game plan. The only check is that many scared Repubs are running for reelection in 2008 and are very wary of supporting this ill-conceived disaster.

Personally, I consider all the Washington posing and "positions" and such merely plays for time on both sides.

What really decides American actions are events in Iraq, and the one that matters is the fall of the Maliki government and inability to put another such sham in its place.

I don't know what the major Iraqi players are waiting for. If I had to guess, it will take execution of Saddam Hussein for the Sunni militias to unite and rise up and destroy the Green Zone. On the Shi'ite side, it seems they're content with the status quo of American money and weaponry being diverted into their side and massacres of Sunnis they don't like and a hostile standoff with the American military. But if Democrats cut off the de facto payoffs to them (as corruption, ostensibly) they might decide there's no point to waiting any longer.

can be avoided. The puppet government will not be able to gain enough popular support to be effective. It seems that an armed conflict is inevitable in Iraq between the varous militias and other armed groups.
How long did Yugoslavia last after Tito died?

with the corpomedia lining up behind them like good soldiers. (With a very few notable exceptions)