Coming "attractions"

President Bush has been focusing lately on the necessity of staying in Iraq because Al-Quaeda is there now(they weren't before we got there, but nevermind), and on the potentially destructive consequences of a US withdrawal. But there is increasing evidence of the impossibility of the "mission" in Iraq, which is supposed to be the establishment of a functioning and united democratic Iraq. As we try to keep Sunni and Shia from murdering one another AND simultaneously fight Al-Quaeda types, we're seeing a looming series of conflicts among Shia factions--between competing religious groups, criminal gangs contesting port revenue in Basra and now rival Shia politicians-with-militias. Read the dispiriting details here.

It's always been hard to see this as anything more than a terrible, catastrophic disaster. It's getting tougher and tougher, in spite of all "happy talk" coming from the authorities.