Claim Victory and Go Home

It's time for another Mission Accomplished moment from Bush and, just as that one was a lie the next one will be too, but since the only thing Bush cares about is appearing victorious (especially in his daddy's eyes which are currently glaring at him via the Iraq study group) he and his neocon buddies can still spin their way out of Iraq and make it seem like they actually did the job they set out to do.

They've been doing that all along anyway with their pronouncements that 'freedom is on the march' and that the Iraqis now have a democratically-elected government. They've denied pretty well every other reality about what's happenning daily in Iraq so what's stopping them from claiming military victory too? They've trained Iraqi troops and police and are intent on having the Iraqi government in control (so they say, anyway) so, in tune with their habit of blaming their faults on everyone else, they can just start pulling out the troops and washing the blood from their hands (until they are one day finally held to account for this hell they created).

Bush has said in the past that US troops would not involve themselves in a civil war in Iraq and even though that began a long time ago, he can now use the Thanksgiving day massacre there as proof that it is time to bring everybody home because this is exactly what civil war looks like.

Via The Independent:

The savage sectarian war in Iraq reached new depths of barbaric violence yesterday with worshippers being dragged out of mosques and burnt alive as a wave of killings swept across the country.

The ones set alight as they pleaded for mercy were Sunnis, victims of a pitiless revenge for the suicide bombings at Sadr City 24 hours earlier which had left 215 people dead and 253 injured in the single deadliest attack since the US-led invasion.

Even as the dead from the massacre were being buried, the grim vow made by Shia fighters of exacting blood for blood was under way. Twenty-two people were killed and 26 injured at Tal Afar, north-west of Baghdad. Nine more people were killed in a mortar attack on a Sunni area in the capital, and rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the Abu Hanifa mosque, one of the holiest Sunni shrines in the country, which had already been damaged in retaliatory action following the Sadr City bombings.

Politically, the country is at a serious crossroads as well:

Meanwhile the political process continued to unravel after Sadr supporters in parliament threatened to boycott proceedings if the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki proceeded with his planned meeting with President George Bush in Amman next week. American and Iraqi government forces had carried out a raid in Sadr City just hours before the Sunni attack during which six people were killed. Mr Maliki is heavily dependent on the support of the Sadr bloc, which has 30 MPs and six ministers in its ranks.

Qusai Abdul-Wahib, a senior Sadr supporter, said: "We say occupation forces are fully responsible for these acts, and we call on these forces to set a timetable for their withdrawal."

The US government may staunchly refuse to bow to Sadr's demands but they then risk the collapse of the Iraqi government that will leave the country in an even more immeasurable amount of chaos. It's hard to imagine that it could get any worse than it already is what with death squads, tortured bodies, fleeing residents, indefinite curfews and all of the other horrors going on there every single day but leave it to Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld (he's not gone yet) to insist on this meeting with al-Maliki next week anyway because that's the way they operate: in an ideologically-based vacuum of a mindset that sees only what it imagines to be true.

The crisis has reached its breaking point. The Democrats do not yet have operational control of congress and may well drag their feet a bit too long while deciding what to do. Meanwhile, the neocons are still in charge and even though everything they touch turns into an absolute disaster, they still believe they can 'win' in Iraq.

There is no 'winning'. It's over. Claim your pompous victory and send the troops home.

Update: Just as I predicted, the White House confirmed on Friday nite that the Bush/al-Maliki meeting is still on for next week.

"Securing Baghdad and gaining control of the violent situation will be a priority agenda item when President Bush meets with Prime Minister Maliki in just a few days," said White House spokesperson Scott Stanzel.

Yeah. Right. Good luck with that. You've only had 3 bloody years to do it already.