I agree with Tony, war is indeed "a big, complex thing" and you can't always predict what will happen. That's why governments normally plan for what might go wrong.

I don't think that anyone thought that the US military would have a particulary hard time defeating the Iraqi military in the field. It was well understood however, that the aftermath would be far more difficult. Even Dick Cheney understood this as early as 1991, when he worked for Junior's dad. What surpasses all understanding is why Rumsfeld disallowed any planning by the military and why the Provisional Authority ignored the planning that the State Department did do.

It would have been far better if Junior had taken Tony's description of war to heart and done some planning. Maybe they would have realized that war is "a big, complex thing" and that putting a country back together is an even bigger and more complex thing. This is especially true when the object of the war was to kill a strongman, excuse me I mean change a regime, that was the only thing preventing a multi-party civil war.

I also think that Tony's right in that Junior has no doubts that he did the right thing, at least for him. I doubt that we'll ever know the real reason that Li'l Georgie launched this war, none of the stated reasons holds water and I don't think that anyone wants to tiptoe through his psyche enough to understand what twisted reasoning makes this clusterfuck seem like a good idea to him.

Yep, Tony's right on at least those two points. I wish he was wrong.

Interesting that the Washington Times' erroneous quote should originally come from Insight Magazine. The two publications are owned by Rev Moon's Unification Church.

I guess when you're the Messiah, little things like truth don't matter much.

It's time for a little horse-trading. Harry Reid needs to channel the ghost of Lyndon Johnson and "reason" with some of the minority.

Find some non-vital and resonably innocuous projects that a dozen Republicans (better add a couple just to have a little room) really want and offer them a deal, they vote to allow debate, or their pet measure never sees the calendar. Don't tell them they need to vote one way or another on the resolution itself, they just need to vote to allow debate.

Letting the Republicans with dicey reelection bids in 2008 know that there'll be no bacon to bring home between now and then unless they see the light, should bring them right around. An dthe nice thing is, it's atool that you can use several times on the same people. Not nice, but then neither are they.

On a somewhat related note, I wonder if Joe Lieberman realizes that after the 2008 election he becomes a non-entity?

The way Senate rules are written require that there be 60 votes in favor to end debate. So essentially, there is no difference between an abstention and a "no" vote. I agree you that it should be 60% of those present, but the Senate has never been particularly small "d" democratic.

So all those Republicans who hoped they were ducking the issue by abstaining or being out of town can rightfully be identified as pro-escallation. I think it might be nice to point out the abstainer's display of what the RAF used to refer to as "LMF" (lack of moral fibre, i.e. cowardice) if any are running in 2008. You know the old "They were for the surge, but to chicken to go on record when it came time to say so."

Does anyone really think that even if this bill actually gets past a Republican fillibuster and makes it to the floor, that it will get the 67 votes needed to get past a certain veto? And even if it does, anyone want to take any bets against Junior pulling a veto-by-signing-statement?

The only way to stop this war is by not funding it. Oh, and impeaching Junior and Darth Cheney would help too. But that stands about as much chance of happening as does joe putting his money where his mouth is and enlisting.

My father-in-law, an MD for almost 50 years, always said that the difference between one's being considered "crazy" and merely being considered "eccentric" is usually a function of the size of one's bank account.

"Clear Skies", Healthy Forests", "Support Our Troops". Am I starting to notice a a pattern here?

Does anyone think that if Junior and Darth Cheney really gave two shits about the people the send out to do the nasty work that their fantasy world requires to prop itself up that this situation would have been allowed to occur, let alone persist?

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the consistent attitude of this malAdministration and their stooges is simple: "I've got mine, so fuck you".

I neither know nor care whether or not Mitt "had sexual relations with that woman", but I'm pretty sure that Coulter just fucked Romney, at least figuratively.

If he beats the odds and actually becomes the Republican nominee, look for this footage to feature prominently in Democratic ads, paired with some of Coulter's more outageous inanities.

We always knew that Annie lived in a fantasy world, now we know just which one. Lewis Carroll beat her to the punch when he had the Humpty Dumpty (or was it the Red Queen?) say:

"A word means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.”

Quel Surprise! Junior's accountants tried to lowball the cost estimates for the surge. I think we've all seen this movie before.

Now Dim Son is looking for an extra $2B. I imagine that this sum will need to be approved by the Senate. I wonder if the Republicans will be willig to debate the surge if the Dems attached that as a condition for ending debate on the extra $2B?