Three years of "preposterous" Iraq War claims

Jules Witcover looks back of three years of constant victories in Iraq on A Dismal Anniversary Tribune Media Services 03/22/06:

He quotes "moderate" Republican Chuck Hagel sounding like he's done with the war because "we achieved victory. Saddam's gone, the Iraqis have a constitution, they had an election, it's now up to them." But Witcover also notes matter-of-factly, "Hagel in his comments made clear he was not advocating a quick withdrawal". That's our "moderate" Republicans today. Support of Bush's worst policies, but with a smily face and a phony nod to the critics.

Witcover, a critic of the Iraq War since before it started, labels Rummy's claim "turning our back on postwar Iraq would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis" as "preposterous".

And he subtly but clearly giggles at Bush's lingering insistence that there is no "civil war' in Iraq:

But Bush could be a mite premature in declaring that the Iraqis had "decided" not to disintegrate into civil war. You only have to remember how in the spring of 2003 he declared that the "major" part of the shooting war was over when he stood before that "Mission Accomplished" banner on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.

Premature judgments in the Bush administration have been all too common. Remember also how Cheney foresaw Iraqis welcoming American forces with flowers before the invasion began and who last summer insisted that the insurgency was "in its last throes." On the CBS News Sunday talk show he insisted those observations were "basically accurate and reflect reality."

It's understandable that the architects of the war in Iraq would want to have words of cheer on the third anniversary of their great misadventure. But the American public would be better served to get the dim picture from them with the bark off, as the press is increasingly presenting it.

Juan Cole has a good article at Salon explaining why it's now completely silly to say there's no civil war in Iraq: Civil war? What civil war? 03/23/06

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