"Mission Accomplished"

So it's been a whole freaking year since Dubya's ill-conceived photo op abord the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, when he prematurely declared victory in his splendid little Iraqi adventure. 676 dead soliders later - more than three times the amount that died during the invasion itself, and counting - and no real end in sight (considering that virtually all of our forces are slated to remain in Iraq after the June 30th "transfer of sovereignty", another Karl Rove Kodak Moment that Bush might not want to let himself be photographed for, considering how magnificently the last one has backfired on him), it's getting harder and harder to claim with a straight face that the good we've done for Iraq somehow outweighs the evil.

Consider for a moment the scandal brewing everywhere but in America over the photographs taken in the infamous Abu Ghraib Prison which capture incidents of U.S. and British servicemen gleefully inflicting abuse and humiliation upon Iraqi prisoners in a manner that would have made Saddam Hussein proud. The Bush and Blair administrations are "appalled" and "disgusted", of course, but that this should have been allowed to happen at all speaks volumes about our self-professed concerns for the plight of the Iraqi people. Whoever thought that it would be a good idea to detain prisoners in Saddam's most notorious jail was probably the same person who brainstormed the idea of the Coalition Provisional Authority taking up residence in one of Baghdad's Presidential Palaces. Is there some kind of "irony filter" that all Pentagon brass must pass through before being hired? I wonder.

And then you have Fallujah, where our resolve to "punish the evildoers" responsible for killing and stringing up four mercenaries (never mind that the mercs were almost certainly there to do the same or even worse to the locals. "Civilian contractors" were also implicated in Abu Ghraib, where allegations of rape will go unanswered since military law doesn't apply to mercenaries and right now there isn't any other law operating in Baghdad. The Bushies are playing a very clever game with mercs - on the one hand sending them in to places like Fallujah to do their dirty work with a certain amount of plausible deniability, but at the same time using them as an effective scapegoat for the misdeeds of the armed forces) last month has resulted in a bloody stalemate that was only resolved by allowing one of Saddam's former generals to assume command over the city:

As marines rolled out of the town in tanks and trucks, Major General Jassem Mohammed Salah was met by a cheering and flag-waving crowd.

Think of how jubilant the Iraqis will be on the day that we leave Baghdad. Maybe we'll finally get those flowers and candies Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz kept talking about in the runup to war - not as a liberator's greeting, but a going-away present! Already the polls are against us. A recent survey of Iraq suggested that the majority now want us out, a significant change from just a few months before. In all truth the best thing we could do would be to leave, which is of course why it'll never happen. Already the political discourse between Republicans and Democrats is not over whether we should stay or go, but how best to "win", as if it were possible to redeem a bullshit war fought for the sake of lies. It's not. And by trying to stake out a watered-down plan for staying the course, the Dems are falling once again into the "me, too" trap that will doom them to defeat this November.

Now is not the time to say that you're for everything your opponent is, because all things being equal, the Average Joe is going to stick with the asshat he knows, especially in a time of crisis. And who can blame him? The state of the nation is bad enough as it is, without turning the reins of power over to someone who doesn't have the political courage to articulate a radically different vision for the country and stick to it. The war was a bad idea. Why is this so hard for Kerry to say? Elect me and we're bringing your sons and daughters home. Why couldn't this work as an electoral strategy in America? It worked for Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero! The United States needs a clear alternative right now, not just a back-seat driver but an entirely new car. Kerry needs to realize this, ignore his handlers, and tap back into that primal rage he was channelling during the primary season (thanks to Howard Dean), or else we're all sunk.

Or better yet - can we have Dean back instead? Win or lose, with Howard Dean it would at least feel like a fight!