The Madness Of King George

First off, let me--and I hope I don't choke on my words--commend President Bush for finally admitting some fallibility. In his speech last night he conceded that "mistakes have been made" in Iraq. The "mistakes" he owned up to had to mostly with insufficient troop levels during the initial invasion.

On the other hand, the President did not admit to lying through his teeth to get us into this mess in the first place. Nor did he explain his sudden realization that gee, things aren't going too well in Iraq. This is understandable, since Bush has had his head up his tuckus for the last three years and couldn't see what was going on.

And even if you choose to foolishly accept the initial reasons (WMD's, Saddam's ties to Al Qaeda)--reasons that turned out to be products not of bad intelligence but selective intelligence--for going into Iraq, you have to at least admit that things have not gone nearly as planned. We have now been fighting in that hellhole of a sandbox for longer than it took us to fight World War II, and if anything, we are further from "winning" than we were in March of 2003.

So what's the solution? Well, according to our fearless leader, it's an additional 21,000 soldiers on the ground. This is easy for him to say since his own daughters aren't in the military and aren't the ones about to put their asses on the line.

But why should we trust Bush now? For three long years--even as the body counts steadily grew larger--he has been assuring the American people that his plan is working, that he knows what he's doing, and that everything is under control. And now we are asked to accept that he has suddenly seen the error of his ways, and has also miraculously seen the way out!?!? Again, you'll notice that he's not asking his own kids to die for his mistakes.

The President also failed to address the issue of military readiness. Many of the soldiers that will be going to Iraq as part of the surge plan aren't properly trained, nor do they have enough equipment to conduct their mission.

One can only pray that Congress will have the balls to stand up to the President and put a stop to this madness. Yes, we will lose in Iraq. But you know what? We already have!

It is time to face the ugly truth that no matter how many more American lives the President sacrifices, nothing will change. The sectarian strife in Iraq will continue one way or another. The sooner we get the hell out, the sooner the goddamn Iraqis can finish fighting it out among themselves.