There was a very successful 23-day campaign to drive Saddam out of power. It used America’s strengths, and it worked. The second campaign has been an abject failure. We and our Iraqi allies do not have control of Iraq. We cannot guarantee security. There is not enough economic activity to keep young males employed. If the Baker-Hamilton Commission cannot bring itself to recognize a defeat as a defeat, then it cannot recommend the scale of change that is needed to develop a potentially successful third campaign.

the third campaign being the one where we actually try giving control of the country to the locals. he’s too polite to say the heist is blown, or to remind people that of course he’s speaking hypothetically.

it’s confusing, though, when you’re the cops, doing the robbing, and you bungle it. who writes the warrant? who gets to be witness, defendant, jury and judge? do you draw straws?

another question for his list:

when will the baker-hamilton-not-me dweebs show they’ve learned the lessons of proper explosives disposal?

we have to start by admitting that detonating improperly stored dynamite while it’s still in the basement of the other person’s house is not effective or safe. unless we put fresh dynamite in what used to be the basement and remove it properly, according to best practice protocols, the neighbors will think we don’t know what we’re doing.

Posted by hibiscus