The Only Dialup Left In America...

...is in my parent's house. Haven't found any place with free WiFi out here in the sticks, either. Even the local community college has shut it down for Thanksgiving.

So we'll be keeping the blogging to a minimum.

I guess the nation is holding its breath for that Baker-Hamilton report, waiting to act while soldiers and Iraqi civilians continue to die. October was the worst month for Iraqi civilians yet, and November hasn't been much better.

It's important to note that the Baker-Hamilton report is a political document. Their suggestions aren't going to be particularly different that what we've been hearing for the past year. There isn't a Middle East expert among the study group members. It's a document that will be used for political cover, from BOTH sides, which are honestly too cowardly to face up to the American people and tell them the hard truth of what is possible and what is impossible, and where we can go from here. Barack Obama's call for troop withdrawals within 4-6 months fails to do that, though the substance of it is fine. Anything that pushes the eventual withdrawal date out (and it is just a matter of time, and whatever happens in the aftermath is going to happen anyway, so it's just a matter of how long you want to see Americans die to try and justify a failed policy) allows those who have control of these things to buy time to push the date out further. It essentially allows them to deny reality. And the reality is that Iraq is over as an imperial project. Kaput. Finished. The civil war that has already started will end in its own way regardless of US deployments. You can go big or go long or go home or go to the movies or go quietly or go tell it on the mountain. It doesn't matter.

So how do you tell American families whose sons and daughters are dying that they'll just be over there long enough for politicians in the executive branch to run out the clock and pass the problem off to someone else?

It's insanity. And on this Thanksgiving, I'll be giving thanks to anyone with the courage to tell the truth about Iraq.