Just Another Day Of Iraq Situation Discouragements

Well, Thursday was certainly another day of discouraging news for any that held out hope of great breakthroughs to improve the dire situation in Iraq. Bush's conference in Jordan only turned out to be another, "You're doing a great job, Brownie" type event, similiar to his support for the much malaligned FEMA head, Michael Browne". Bush seemed to heap praise on a badly failed Iraqi leader, Nouri al-Maliki whose government is quickly failing and may not even survive for another 30 days, let alone take over Iraqi security by June as he absurdly claimed. In short this back-patting nonsense conference resolved little important issues or further shored-up Iraqi security and only resulted in the waste of jet fuel for Bush to fly to Jordan. Many gallons of jet fuel were wasted, and we can never get them back.

And the much touted soon-to-released, Baker Commission Report, while possiby leading the U.S. ever so gently from the quagmire of Iraq in words, is still likely to fall on deaf ears from the lack of deeds of President Bush who still seeks to "stay the course", and to blame the smallest group of insurgent activity, the tiny Al Qaeda presense, for the problems in Iraq.

For all the public hope for the Baker Commission to lead the U.S. out of Iraq, as though the commission is comprised of all-knowing and all-wise Moselike figures, few members are knowledgable in MidEast history or even the MidEast in general. Further few even have any military experience. Some like former Reagan Administration Attorney General Edwin Meese resigned in disgrace due to weak ethics. Meese's only real other contribution was to morally attack adult entertainment in another lengthy commission report, which was about to be expected from this mouthpiece for the Christian right wing. What Meese has to add to this commission comprised of former political has-beens is questionable. But it does illustrate that this unelected Iraq study group probably will carry far less weight with the White House than the hopes of the American public hold for it as a path out from Iraq.

In general, it's been just another frustrating day for the Iraq War, and little reason to hold out hope that a corner will soon turn.