But sometimes doing nothing is precisely what the Doctor ordered. Especially when the alternative is to keep digging.

As a destructive force, you folks are excellent. Keep up the good work. Conservatives are counting on you.

Cheers on destruction if it thinks it benefits him personally. Doesn't give a rats ass about the actual state of the Country. Typical.

They believe that if we were to get rid of the IRGC, the clerics would fall, and our thirty-years war with Iran over. It's another neo-con delusion, but still it informs White House thinking.

And what do we do if just the opposite happens -- a strike on Iran unifies Iranians behind the regime.

Is of course that you can win anyone over to your side by bombing them. The Iraqi flowers didn't quite work out the way they were supposed to but we did get some nice footage of a statue being toppled.

I don't know how accurate your assesment of our likelyhood of attacking Iran is but I wouldn't dream of discouraging you from raising the alarm. This is one instance where I'm hoping that your are humiliatingly wrong and forced to eat your words.

David Broder once had coffee with a bunch of farmers in Des Moines!

I on the other hand conducted my own informal poll and can state decisively that white 49 year old bass players from the US Virgin Islands insist that the US Congress does nothing BUT investigate the Preisident.

Is an Al-Qaeda type?

Cause I'd hate to think that you were overgeneralizing and failing to differentiate actual enemies with imagined ones.

Be careful when you weigh in on a topic you know nothing about.

On the other hand when comparing credentials between a professional journalist and an amateur troll, its important to note that the troll has a total of 5 posts, each displaying an ascending degree of ignorance.

Of course this wouldn't be so sad if the Republican leadership showed any inclination to support the troops. The folks over at Americablog highlight the hypocrisy on an almost daily basis including as luck would have it - this morning:

http://www.americablog.com/2007/08/bushs-defense-dept-sending-only-half.html

And of course, one need only mention the name Beauchamp to be reminded that support of the troops is limited to those troops who play along with the propoganda campaign:

http://michellemalkin.com/2007/08/08/winter-soldier-syndrome/

Michelle loves her some soldiers......well except......

who wrote the story that Joe Klein links to approvingly about how the Democrats are having to adjust their message in light of all the recent success of the Surge(TM)

http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/08/democrats_and_the_war.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082102025.html

The same logic that suggests that when WE invade a sovereign nation it's nevertheless a defensive act applies now. Well yes, laws were broken, but there was no harm intended therefore immunity is only fair.

I'm reminded of Fraud Guy's analysis from the other day.

10% of the people break the rules no matter what, 10% will even act against their own interest and 80% follow the rules as they are layed out. That of course helps explain the importance of the whole FISA issue. Once breaking the law is officially determined to be without consequence, those 80% are now free to do whatever the Hell they want. No wonder they call it a slippery slope.

who, after all, was elected democratically and was the leader in whom we were placing all of our hopes for progress in Iraq

It suddenly comes clear to me why Bushco continues to push the idea that it's spreading Democracy. Clearly its because its due to its proven track record of manipulating Democratic institutions to its own ends. Obviously the run-up to the Iraq war is the most blatant example but Bushco knows from experience that if you spend enough money and control your message tightly enough you can sell anything to anybody.

I do find it interesting that CNN however is breaking from the pack and actually reporting news for a change.

And for the short to medium-term at least, these American generals don't believe that a democracy is necessary to replace it, and perhaps it's best that one doesn't for now.

Raytheon (tm) Spreading democracy with every explosion.

(and remember - its organic!)

Excalibur is a combat-proven system with the accuracy required to reduce collateral damage. With its accuracy and increased effectiveness, Excalibur provides operational flexibility and reduced logistical burden for deployed ground forces. The ground commander now has a precision, in-direct fire capability that is organic to the brigade combat team.

http://www.raytheon.com/feature/pgp/

Purple Fingers

I confess that I have a much greater tolerance for these sorts of creative approaches to national sovereignty and democratic change when I have any confidence the puppeteers have a clue what they're doing. But, that said, it would seem Mr. Allawi may be the coming man to continue Iraq's democratic revolution.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/040934.php

Iraqi "sovereignty" is an illusion and power in Iraq is determined not by Baghdad but by the Beltway

Of course the US has been busy undermining democratically elected governments for longer than I have been alive but during that time, it was always considered polite to at least PRETEND that we were promoting self-determination and Freedom &reg. And of course we always had the Soviets to which we could favorably compare oursleves.

Nowadays we don't even bother with the illusion of Democracy. It puppetry all the way through.