Awakenings

Kurdistan seems to be relatively peaceful. Kurdistan seems to be more or less ethnically homogenous, and it ran itself (under US protection) for years while Saddam was still a threat. That’s the sort of situation that provides both time and incentive for a well-functioning government to evolve. Sadly, most of Iraq is not Kurdistan, which seems to be .

I saw this story in several places… I’m running late and I don’t know which blog to credit for the pointer (either Matthew Yglesias or the Carpetbagger). The story indicates the surge is (predictably) not working in Baghdad.

I noted before the surge began a few months ago that it wasn’t going to work. I noted that I hoped (yet again) that the administration would prove me wrong and do somethign well, but it has stubbornly refused to do so on anything important for six years and change now. At this point, its been slowly sinking in with the Republican base that maybe the problem is with the Administration. But at this point, so what? Realizing an obvious problem long after every opportunity to fix (I would guess the 2006 Congressional election was the last chance) it is gone neither takes any insight, nor is it particularly useful.

The signs have been there for a long time… the frantically moving goalposts (both on Iraq and the economy – when is that debt going to be paid off again?), the treatment of those that didn’t drink the Kool-Aid, the allies jumping ship. So what can be done to prevent this sort of widespread realization occuring, too late, the next time around?