Suspend for the moment all judgment and put yourself into the Oval cuckoo nest. Imagine the surge is working, Gen. Petraeus is pacifying the streets of Baghdad, the Sunnis and Shiites are forced to work out a government. Imagine, beyond all reason, an American “victory.”
What then? Voters, believing Bush has been right all along, reject defeatist Democrats and pick John McCain to be their next President or, more likely, the one-size-fits-all candidate who can win the Republican nomination, President Fred Dalton Thompson.
Does he keep his campaign promise to bring home our troops in triumph? How can he with Iran and Syria still exporting insurgents, with the Kurds feeling threatened not only by Turkey but by the Shiite-Sunni coalition, which is starting to unravel over disputes about oil revenues, to say nothing of all the new militias forming to bring down the “sellouts” in the new government?
How long before Americans realize that “victory” in Iraq means open-ended occupation to deal with a constantly shifting Middle East mess of ongoing mistrust, new alliances and ancient emnities?
How long before whoever is elected President in 2008 realizes that George Bush, no matter what happens if we don’t start to withdraw now, has euchred him (or her) into taking over an endless no-win war?
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