Yesterday 198 Iraqis lost their lives in yet another car bombing. Seventeen American soldiers have been killed in the past week. The death and destruction all over Iraq continues unabated. This, after several months of the so-called Bush "surge", which was going to decisively change the direction of the war in Iraq. The addition of more US troops has made absolutely no difference to the way this war is being conducted. It has only reinforced the fury of the Sunni irregulars, the Al Qaeda opportunists, the Shiite fundamentalists.
But the truth is that the American people never wanted to go down this route in the first place. They made plain their opposition to further action in Iraq in the 2006 Congressional elections by electing a Democratic congress. Yet this administration twisted the outcome of that contest to argue that Americans wanted more soldiers in Iraq. It was yet another act of deception on the part of President Bush.
Democrats now seem virtually helpless to stop the mayhem because they don't have veto-proof majorities in either branch of Congress. But they are pressing for a withdrawal date -- which is putting the Bushites on the spot. Still how much more horror can we endure? Does this Administration have any inkling that its newest policy has been an unmitigated disaster? It seems not. We are back in Katrina-land, Walter Reed-land, and all the other denial-lands which we have seen in six years of this utterly feckless presidency.