...to come up with a totally boneheaded idea like formally taking sides with the Shia in Iraq.

I know we're practically there already, but is this really the right thing to do?

Jesus. Will that man NEVER be defanged? Christ on a crutch. He has been as big a disaster for this country as Bush. He's no patriot. He's a scum-sucking opportunist who apparently can't see any further into the future than the next three months. This mess in Iraq must really be driving him absolutely batty.

And who, in the name of god, would trust that fucker to make a good decision about ANYTHING at this point? Who? Bush? Ok. Anyone else? Thought not.

WHAT A FUCKING MESS.

GET OUT OF IRAQ ***NOW***!!! GET. OUT. OF. IRAQ!!!!! I don't care what Israel wants -- we were WRONG to invade, we are WRONG to remain there. GET OUT OF IRAQ ***NOW***!!!!

...the administration will pick the one that optimises (a) disastrousness and (b) profits for Halliburton et al.

It looks like the only voice to which Bush will listen about the utter waste of this sacrifical surge is his God's. Is there any way to rig up his bedroom with some special effects so he'll think his Lord is speaking to him?! I happened to flip to MSNBC last night and -- I'm not a regular Countdown viewer by any means, give me Jim Lehrer any day -- I was so impressed by Keith Olbermann's 11-minute-long rant directed at Bush and McCain about the human sacrifice they are suggesting. Why hasn't War Room had a link to the video yet?!

Here's a highlight:

Our policy in Iraq has been criticized for being indescribable, for being inscrutable, for being ineffable.

But it is all too easily understood now.

First we sent Americans to their deaths for your lie, Mr. Bush.

Now we are sending them to their deaths for your ego.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16442767/

...is a good description of what goes on my john when I flush it.

So here's how it'll go down - the last option listed just touches on how bad it will be.

The WH War Criminals will back Al Sadr and will take on SCIRI (who are supported by Iran). The war will be widened to include Iran as US troops formerly bogged down in Iraq will be redeployed to Iran after the US/Israel (as if there were any meaningful difference these days) bombs and/or nukes Iran's supposed nuke facilities. Former Shi'ite Evil Person Al Sadr will be engaged to do the US dirty work murdering Sunnis in Iraq and US will have McCain doctrine "Boots on the Ground" to invade Sunni Iran. The goal: sectarian war to split the Muslim world and thus make the world safe for Israel and cover GWB's sorry ass by distracting the US until his term is over. The middle east in a horrific war, a Dem will be elected president and be left to clean up the mess. Said Dem (which one is irrelevant) will withdraw the US troops (as Bush should have done) and be slapped with the old Viet Nam loser/peacenik tag. As though Dems had a ghost of a different idea, anyway. This is only about politics, folks. Neither of these US groups gives a rat's ass about the lives they throw away in their craven pusuit of power for its own sake. Oil will hit $200 a barrel and wreck economies worldwide and they'll tell us and themselves (as they already have) that yeah, that's bad but not as bad as an nuclear-armed Iran would be (and that without a shred of evidence, mind you). This is corruption pure and simple. It ends only in the destruction of our country... but hey, check out the important Salon story on mannequins having big boobs; WAY more important than this boring sh*t, no?

Makes me ashamed, I kid you not.

Yeah, I'm afraid something is missing, but no, it's not my camel.

The analysis we have in this article has something in common with most of the recent articles on this topic - there's not a single mention of a heavy player called Saudi Arabia.

A few weeks ago the House of Saud "summoned" the Vice-President of the United States of America to the Saud's kingdom. When Mr. Cheney dutifully arrived in Riyadh the royals proceeded to "read the riot act" to our great white hunter, explaining in no uncertain terms that if the United States leaves Iraq, and leaves it in the shape its in today, then the Saudis will, as King Abdullah personally warned Mr. Cheney, "intervene aggressively on one side absent an American presence."

The "one side" on which the Sauds are planning to "intervene aggressively" is, of course, the Sunni side. Which is coincidentally not the Shiite side that Iran is already involved with.

America is very involved in the drama surrounding the question of how we are going to get out of Iraq. The premise of that drama is built around the notion that we still have the option of getting out of Iraq. The premise no longer necessarily holds. It is very likely that we are already too late.

Bush has successfully brought the Middle East to the brink of war, and made our nation an integral part of that impending war. The Persian Gulf could easily be shut down in a matter of hours. The world's oil supply could be thrown into chaos. And... so forth.

I sincerely hope that Salon readers and reporters will take a look at the CNN article I have linked to below. And consider the distinct possiblity that Mr. Bush has already dragged us across the Rubicon, and in reality we might be on the verge of getting exactly what we deserve.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/13/saudi.sunnis/index.html

Right now the attrition rate of our combat troops is so small that the daily number of dead and wounded fit on one Starlifter to Landstuhl with room to spare. When the "Surge" gets going, men and women are going to bleed to death in triage, waiting for field surgery. Medivacs from the field to Balad and Baghdad are going to be running relays. The nightly Starlifter flights are going to have to be augmented with charter commercial aircraft. Houston-based Continental Airlines already has contracts in place (Daddy Bush is a major stockholder) to be flying our concussed and burned and soon-to-be dead out of the war zone. Walter Reed, Bethesda Naval Hospital, and the regional Veterans Administration hospitals around the country are going to fill up with young people with grievous, unsightly and very unphotogenic injuries.

The military funerals around the country are finally going to start making the six and ten o'clock news.

Finally, the war is going to come home to American living rooms like it did in Vietnam.

Then and only then will enough people actually get out in the streets and stop traffic, storm their Congressperson's office and chain themselves to the gates of Army bases.

Then the war will wind down and stop.

That's the only thing that will stop it.