Exit Strategy: Insist We Won

Judging from the rumblings coming from Bush and Cheney, I'd say one of two things is in the works: either it's more of the same periodic pollyanna pronouncements that the administration offers in the face of continuing setbacks OR they're really planning to cut and run.

Apparently launching coordinated and increasingly frequent attacks is, according to Cheney, the sign of an insurgency in its "last throes." Well, as Jake would say, isn't it pretty to think so? It'd be nice if these nutcases would stop suicide bombing, but for Cheney to make a statement like this latest whopper in the wake of continued violence boggles the imagination. Is he really that out of touch? Is he the king of wishful thinking?

Of course, what else can they say? Well, gee, it really isn't like all those scenes of the liberation of Paris that we studied...

Here's a Bush gem: "I think the Iraqi people dealt the insurgents a serious blow when we had the elections" [cnn.com]. Just like we did in Vietnam in 1967... Here's a guy whose administration has made a case for circumventing the Geneva Conventions, using torture, and practicing indefinite, secret detentions based in part on the idea that the "evildoers don't respect the rules." And he thinks an election -- one of the most ritualistic rule-bound trappings of state legitimacy out there -- will deter them for what reason? How did this fool get reelected?

Speaking of circumventing Geneva Conventions, the administration is up in arms over Amnesty International's condemnation of US treatment of detainees at Guantanamo. Cheney himself, great lover of freedom, has opined that Amnesty International's accusations mean that "I frankly just don't take them seriously" [cnn.com]. This should come as no surprise, since Cheney was equally unimpressed with Amnesty International's condemnation of Apartheid during the 1980's. After all, Cheney labelled Mandela a terrorist and continued to push for support for the soon-to-be-flagging Apartheid regime. But Cheney has a proud history of racist and classist voting during his ten year tenure in the U.S. Congress.

If I were religious, I'd wonder what our nation had done to deserve these two hypocrites...