"We're not even meeting our basic obligation to the Iraqis who've been imperiled because they worked for the U.S. government," said Kirk W. Johnson, who worked for the United States Agency for International Development in Falluja in 2005. "We could not have functioned without their hard work, and it's shameful that we've nothing to offer them in their bleakest hour."
...
Some critics say the Bush administration has been reluctant to create a significant refugee program because to do so would be tantamount to conceding failure in Iraq.
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For Iraqis, a tie to the United States is a life-threatening liability, particularly in harder-line Sunni neighborhoods
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Iraqis cannot apply directly for refugee status in the American Embassy in Baghdad.
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"They said they have nothing for Iraqis," said Amar, sitting in a small house in western Baghdad. "We feel just like stupid trash."
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The State Department spent $35 million on Iraqi refugees in Iraq and the region in 2006. The United States spends approximately $8 billion a month on the war.

Why can't these old dudes go off into retirement without acting like they know something?

Jim, you are really coming out swinging for the '07 stupidest-comment-of-the-year award.

Of all of the corner-painted, false justifications for the many different atrocities we have committed on Iraq over the last 17 years, blaming the Iraqis themselves for the consequences of their current plights has got to be the most intellectually vacuous, and devoid of any empathy whatsoever. Oh, sure, you were only referring to the immigration situation. Yet I view that as a symptom of your larger case of denial and rationalization. But of course, the whole thing is my fault for resisting the invasion in the first place.

Yet not everybody at the Pentagon shared General's Casey's confidence. The Defense Intelligence Agency had briefed the White House in early 2006 that the insurgency was winning in Iraq, according to a former military officer. The briefing, which chronicled the steady rise in the number of attacks, prompted a counter-briefing from General Casey's intelligence chief, who prepared an analysis tracing the positive trends in Iraq.

Data gathered by General Casey's own command, which showed a steady increase in weekly attacks and civilian casualties, lent support to the Defense Intelligence Agency assessment.

[snip]

...He [Lt. Col. James Danna] said that like the first Baghdad security operation, the second also failed. As the American elections approached, White House officials say, they believed it would amount to political suicide to announce a broad reassessment of Iraq strategy. But they recognized that unless they began such a review, they would be forced to accept the conclusions of the final report of the Iraq Study Group -- headed by James A. Baker III, the former Republican secretary of state, and Lee H. Hamilton, the former Democratic congressman.

Mr. Bush still insists on talking about victory, even if his own advisers differ about how to define it. "It's a word the American people understand," he told members of the Iraq Study Group who came to see him at the White House in November, according to two commission members who attended. "And if I start to change it, it will look like I'm beginning to change my policy."

What a confidence inspiring C-in-C, eh? Can't work his way out of a wet paper bag, doesn't want to be seen as unable to work his way out of a wet paper bag, so he puts a wet paper bag over his head so he won't have to listen to anyone criticize him for being unable to escape a wet paper bag,and that prevents putting together a plan to work his way out of the wet paper bag.

By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East?  Their morale, like so many lifeless bodies, is already shot to pieces.  They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.

Here's what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial.  And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we're hooked on.

The international community must use all diplomatic options at its disposal to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but in the end military force will be necessary, the director of a leading think tank here said on Thursday.

"As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and US newspaper editors," declares Israeli Brigadier General Oded Tira. "We need to do this in order to turn the Iranian issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure."
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Come the invasion of Iran, Hezbollah's resistance will look like an informal dress rehearsal by way of comparison.

As it now appears, 2007 will be the decisive year for Israel's long-planned attack on Iran, thanks to a never-ending stream of propaganda and the easily exploitable ignorance of the American people. "The Bush administration, with the able help of the Israeli government and the pro-Israel Lobby, has succeeded in exploiting the ignorance of the American people about nuclear technology and nuclear weapons," writes Scott Ritter. "If there is an American war with Iran, it is a war that was made in Israel and nowhere else."

In addition to AIPAC influence and the overtime work of the neocons, the latter with a virtual electronic forum thanks to the corporate media and the former now diligently canvassing Congress for easily won support, there is Bush's "legacy" to consider.

"Bush can't stop now," writes Scott Horton. "He figures his legacy as a disgrace to America and all mankind can be postponed or perhaps somehow even reversed if he could have just a little more time.