"Mission Accomplished" My Ass

The cover story in USA Today today was a pretty sobering account of how bad things are in Iraq and how, quite frankly, the powers that be in the US completely fucked up by getting us into this mess. I think the best summary in the article is this:

"The bottom line is, at this moment we are losing the war," says Andrew Bacevich, a former Army colonel who teaches international relations at Boston University. "That doesn't mean it is lost, but we are losing, and as an observer it is difficult for me to see that either the civilian leadership or the military leadership has any plausible idea on how to turn this around."

While "it is certainly a good thing that Saddam Hussein is gone," it is difficult to say that Iraq is in better shape, Bacevich says. "Iraq was a lousy place to live when Saddam was in power, and Iraq is a lousy place to live with Saddam Hussein gone and this growing insurgency" in his place, he says.

Another analyst, from the Cato Institute, rejects the comparisons to US involvement in Vietnam and says the developing morass in Iraq is more like the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan or the British occupation of Northern Ireland. And we all know how well those went.