In the Lion's Den

So tonight, President Dumb Ape addresses the nation from the Army War College, which is an interesting place for him to go. The college has been extremely critical of his Iraq policy, particularly in a recent report that compared Iraq to Vietnam. While, according to the authors, the military parallels are dissimilar, the political parallels are shockingly in sync. Here's a choice selection:

It is, of course, far too early predict whether the United States will accomplish its policy objectives in Iraq and whether public support will 'stay the course' on Iraq. But policymakers should be mindful of the reasons for U.S. failure to create a politically legitimate and militarily viable state in South Vietnam, as well as for the Johnson and Nixon administrations' failure to sustain sufficient domestic political support for the accomplishment of U.S. political objectives in Indochina. Repetition of those failures in Iraq could have disastrous consequences for U.S. foreign policy...

The United States is now seeking to do in Iraq what it failed to do in South Vietnam: create and sustain an indigenous government and political order that the Iraqi people will accept as legitimate and successfully fight to defend.

Seems to me that Bush wouldn't choose to give a speech about Iraq in Ted Kennedy's house, but the Army War College is AOK. Maybe the President was too busy mountain-biking to read their report. But perhaps he should read it, because the political similarities are striking. We are establishing and breaking alliances with would-be Iraqi leaders at a faster burn rate than your average dot-com, with the recent raid of Ahmad Chalabi's home being the most visible. Chalabi, by the way, the former neocon darling, apparently was giving secrets on US troop positions to Iranian Shiites, a scandal that should shake the foundations of the Pentagon (Chalabi's funder to the tune of US $20M), but probably won't. Numerous other members of the Governing Council have resigned, and those still in place are performing the familiar banana republic ritual of appointing their friends and relatives to choice high-paying jobs. This is the Ngo Dihn Diem regime all over again, and we're rapidly running out of puppets we can trust with the "sovereign government" we'll hand over on June 30.

Of course, that's what tonight's speech is all about. Let's hope he takes questions from uniformed personnel. It seems that constituency is wavering in its support of his foreign policy.