If George Bush’s War in Iraq is now a complete cluster-fuck, finding a solution to it looks like a Chinese fire drill. Now that we have had a well-documented moment of National clarity and can, for a moment, see past the hype and recognize our efforts in Iraq for the terrifying failure that they appear to be, we are doing the American thing and addressing the problem. But this thing is so fucked, and we are so late in recognizing it, that we are even having a problem with the problem.
I have never seen our country so at a loss or so lacking in direction. Bush, in his arrogance, dug his heels so deep in the dirt with his "Stay the Course", that even if he wanted to make a major change, he would look like a (bigger) liar if he did anything sudden. So we proceed with the Official Chinese Fire Drill. Take Rumsfeld out and put Robert Gates in. Give the Democrats (who mostly voted for the war anyway) control of Congress. Convene the Joint Chiefs. Ask their advice. Ignore it. Convene a bipartisan panel to study the problem. Read their report. Ignore it. Visit the Generals in the Field. Ask their opinions. Ignore them. Stay the course. Change the course. Stay on a course of change. Find a "New Way Forward". But don’t go there. It might be a trap.
So here America stands, pissing her pants at the crossroads, unable to decide which fork in the road will lead us back to being free of fear at home and well-liked, or at least tolerated overseas. If we cut and run, it will cost us. If we stick and stay and make it pay, it will cost us. It will cost us.
With or without George Bush, and he is getting less relevant by the minute, it really doesn’t look as though there is a clear solution to this problem that will not cost us dearly in some combination of blood, money, pride, and national security.
So I was thinking all these thoughts early this morning as I rummaged through an old storage locker, when I stumbled on a copy of Newsweek from about 25 years ago. It was the cover, just after the 1982 elections. Take a look.

Damn. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Maybe this is just another in a series of American moments. Maybe, like all moments, this too shall pass. Maybe we will find some path, some course out of this conflict that we can label as a "success". Maybe in another twenty-five years, all of this will be a distant memory, a footnote to make fifth-graders fall asleep in history class. Maybe. I sure hope so. I am rooting for you America.

C ‘Ya