A Dark Malaise Metastasizes About The Soul Of America

President Bush still thinks his war in Iraq is the right thing to do in it's current incarnation:

Congress needs to approve emergency funding for our troops, without strings and without delay. If they send me a bill that does otherwise, I will veto it.

It's his way, or the highway and the subtext: "How about another giant helping of deferred taxes on Americans,” after all, what else is incurred debt? And, if you are not loyal, you get fired, regardless how competent you are:

Q Tony, real quick, back to the loyalty question. In that Kyle Sampson memo, he says, "The vast majority of U.S. attorneys, 80 to 85 percent, I would guess, are doing a great job, are loyal Bushies," et cetera. Does the President believe that a U.S. attorney is successful if he's a "loyal Bushie"?

MR. SNOW: Again, you're going to have to -- what you're trying to do is to get the President to respond to a characterization by Kyle Sampson. I've already told you what the definition of loyalty is in this White House, which is to do your job -- to understand that it is an honor to be in the White House, and an honor to serve the American people, and you treat that as a trust. Loyalty to the President means doing your job and faithfully carrying out the priorities of the administration.

I think I laid it out, when you're talking about U.S. attorneys, that means following the priorities within the Department of Justice; it means doing your job -- doing it faithfully, all.

Q How about the oath to office?

MR. SNOW: We believe in that, too. Chow time. (Laughter.)

But the avoidance of responsibility and improper treatment of people who are doing their jobs while rewarding incompetence (e.g. "you're doin' a heckuva job Brownie") is symptomatic of the larger, dark malaise that has metastasized about the soul of America. That is, Iraq and the Global War On Terror.

From the outset, the thing was bankrupt as an idea. As we progress further and further down the rabbit hole we find that Iraq may very well be the Albatross that sinks our dear country.

The war in Iraq isn't over yet, but -- surge or no surge -- the United States has already lost. That's the grim consensus of a panel of experts assembled by Rolling Stone to assess the future of Iraq. "Even if we had a million men to go in, it's too late now," says retired four-star Gen. Tony McPeak, who served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War. "Humpty Dumpty can't be put back together again."

Those on the panel -- including diplomats, counter-terror analysts and a former top military commander -- agree that President Bush's attempt to secure Baghdad will only succeed in dragging out the conflict, creating something far beyond any Vietnam-style "quagmire." The surge won't bring an end to the sectarian cleansing that has ravaged Iraq, as the newly empowered Shiite majority seeks to settle scores built up during centuries of oppressive rule by the Sunni minority. It will do nothing to defuse the powder keg that an independence-minded Kurdistan, in Iraq's northern provinces, poses to the governments of Turkey, Syria and Iran, which have long brutalized their own Kurdish separatists. And it will only worsen the global war on terror.

Indeed, many of us in the blogisphere have been saying this for a great long while. Why the W, Rove and Co insists that their way is the "right" way is that they have no other choice. Otherwise, they would have no other thing to do than turn themselves in for crimes against humanity and America. Really,

This is a dark chapter in our history. Whatever else happens, our country's international standing has been frittered away by people who don't have the foggiest understanding of how the hell the world works. America has been conducting an experiment for the past six years, trying to validate the proposition that it really doesn't make any difference who you elect president. Now we know the result of that experiment [laughs]. If a guy is stupid, it makes a big difference.