How long will we assess before we actually do something to limit our involvement in Iraq? If only we'd done these sort of assessments before we went into Iraq. Or, rather, listened to the people who had done such assessments.

This is bullsh-t. It's stalling. The news is what we've always known--our military is powerful and can fulfill its military tasks. But it can't create policy, and it can't undo centuries of sectarian divisions.

The real question is: in all of these studies and assessments, what have we learned about Iraq that we didn't know five years ago? Hell, that we didn't know fifteen years ago?

This isn't learning. It's a distraction.

We've moved on to Plan B: Dicking Around Even Harder!

I am sick of politicians blaming this on the Iraqis. The fault lies with Mr. Bush and anyone who voted for or with him. (Are you listening Ms. Clinton?) The sooner we can acknowledge our own complicity (in fact we are totally to blame, so perhaps complicity never enters into it) the sooner we can get on with the future and find a way out of this hell.

but saying that the surge is working, but it's the Iraqi politicians' fault, strikes me as too perfect to allow "us" to pull out without losing face.

And when strikes me as being that scripted, I tend to distrust everything about it.

There is no real government in Iraq except the United States government.

You realize of course, don't you, that it would take only take a task force of about 60 U.S. Marines less than five hours to track down and liquidate with extreme prejudice, the entire Iraqi parliament including Al Maliki.

The so-called "Iraqi government" are stick figures in a Potemkin Village. They are utterly powerless and dependent on bribes and handouts from Washington.

The Iraqi government does not exist.

Ha,ha. So this is what the US means by democracy. Do as we say, not as we do. Why don't you just get the hell out of Iraq and let them have their country back? Or is that one in the too hard basket? If you really believed in democracy you would never have gone in there in the first place. The Iraq war is a colonial war. The first colonial war of the 21st century and an announcement of America's intention to make the 21st century just like the 20th. An era of bloodthirsty monsters.

Did part of your whine at Iraqi politicians also include a strong recommendation that they pass the oil law ASAP? Besides "political compromises" (or included among the "compromises") did you demand that the oil law be passed so that no matter what happens that at least American oil companies will own some Iraqi oil fields? That IS the reason we went in in the first place, afterall, to get THEIR oil...

Words spewing out as their fearless President's favorite writer, Shakespeares, once put: "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".

Two throughly nauseating politicians repeating the same crap. Two pretenders pretending to understand the context. Betrayus will "find" a need for another six month murder cycle, followed by another six month murder cycle, followed by Busit leaving office saying he did what he thought was right. Meet the Press will clamor for his presence and we'll all projectile vomit at his self-praise. Nauseating.