reality-based educator

Attacks in Iraq have skyrocketed over the last year. So says Walter Pincus in the Washington Post:

Attacks in Iraq reached a high of approximately 180 a day last month, reflecting an increasingly complicated conflict that includes sectarian clashes of Sunni and Shiite militias on top of continuing strikes by insurgents, criminal gangs and al-Qaeda terrorists, according to the directors of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

...

Attempting to describe the enemy, Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, the DIA director, listed "Iraqi nationalists, ex-Baathists, former military, angry Sunni, Jihadists, foreign fighters and al-Qaeda," who create an "overlapping, complex and multi-polar Sunni insurgent and terrorist environment." He added that "Shia militias and Shia militants, some Kurdish pesh merga, and extensive criminal activity further contribute to violence, instability and insecurity."

In unusually harsh terms, the two intelligence directors spelled out how quickly the violence in Iraq has escalated this year, from about 70 attacks a day in January to about 100 a day in May and then to last month's figure. "Violence in Iraq continues to increase in scope, complexity, and lethality" despite operations by the Iraqi government and the U.S.-led coalition, Maples said. He described "an atmosphere of fear and hardening sectarianism which is empowering militias and vigilante groups, hastening middle-class exodus, and shaking confidence in government and security forces."

In other Iraq news, 4 American and 1 Austrian security contractor were kidnapped by insurgents yesterday after their convoy was hijacked in southern Iraq.

The Iraqi government has issued an arrest warrant for a Sunni cleric, Sheik Harith al-Dhari, on charges of inciting terrorism and violence. Some people fear this arrest could further inflame the Sunni insurgency, especially since the Iraqi government seems to be giving free reign to the Shia death squads working out of the Interior and Defense Ministries.

Finally our preznit says he has learned the lesson of the Vietnam War and is applying it to Iraq: You only lose when you quit!

So don't expect any quitting from this preznit. Heck no, we're gonna keep just enough troops in country in the forseeable future to continue the "Stand and Bleed" administration policy while the security conditions and the sectarian violence continues to worsen.

I guess elections don't have consequences anymore. In 2000, 2002, and 2004, we were told that "elections have consequences" and no matter how small the electoral victory, the victors ALWAYS had a mandate to pursue their policies.

But now suddenly that Bush and the GOP are on the losing end, elections no longer have any consequences and the Decider in the White House gets to decide the Iraq policy no matter what the American people or the victorious opposition party want.

And so the Decider hss decided that victory will be ours as long as we decide not to leave Iraq until we achieve victory.

Yeah, that makes sense. And the bloodshed and chaos continues unabated while the delusional Decider makes believe he's Patton.