"Hopeless."

North Korea claims to have successfully tested a nuclear weapon about 45 minutes ago.

Listening to NPR on the car radio late this afternoon, I heard a retired U.S. Army colonel state that what Senator John Warner is hinting at with his "sideways drift," and what some military commanders on the ground are admitting, is that our prospects in Iraq are now: "Hopeless." The great majority of Iraqis want us to leave; 6 out of 10 approve of the attacks on Americans that caused so much death and maiming this week.

I've been watching nature programs all day and I can't shake the image of the young challengers creeping up on the aging lion, cutting off his avenues of escape.

The jihadis defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the '80s, and now, as they boasted they could, they've defeated the United States, driven us out of Iraq -- it's only a matter of time, the consensus is becoming overwhelming, different parties concurring for different reasons but all coming together in an irresistible turning of the tide. Call it cutting and running, or call it cutting our losses, call it whatever you like -- it's a victory for our enemies.

A defeat that we, the aging lion, could not afford, that was called down on us by the Bush Administration as surely as if they'd said, "Bring it on!" By the arrogance and recklessness of their rush to war and refusal to listen to the counsel of those who knew Iraq. By their labeling of dissent and wisdom as cowardice and treason. The Democrats, in retrospect, bought into it in so many ways. They were reactive only. Because of 9/11, they first allowed themselves to be intimidated out of intelligent dissent, then, when it all went wrong, reared up in belated, spiteful, stupid dissent that made it certain that the U.S. would be unable to correct its errors.

But they bear only an ancillary share of the blame. They were only the political moon, reflecting. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are this war's unholy trinity. Has it ever been clearer that blustering, indiscriminate strength is the worst form of weakness?

There's never been a more timely moment for the New York Times Book Review to put on its cover page a review of The Road, Cormac McCarthy's apocalyptic portrayal of "life" in a post-global-war nuclear winter. The species has never seemed more hell-bent on blowing itself to kingdom come. Right now a lot of us share the emotion Dennis Lehane names in a guest review of The Road on Amazon: "rage at the hopeless folly of man."

Comments

[meade]

Iraq has not been lost. Nor, obviously, has it been won. Patience is not something Americans in general have in surplus... especially not post WWII generations of Americans. Following official surrender, it took 4 more years of Allied occupation in Germany and 7 years in Japan to secure the defeated nations and begin rebuilding. Hard to imagine today's Americans enduring such lack of "closure' for so long.

But a conclusion is clearly coming.

Amazing how much the future rests on whether or not one man, Nouri al-Maliki, can rise to the challenge of his place and time in history.

[amba]

It's been lost because we're leaving. Don't you think that looks inevitable at this point? Mainly, we're leaving because the political will to fight this war as it should be fought was not created properly -- if that was possible at all. They quailed at trying (to ask such sacrifices of the U.S. population for something a little more far-fetched, or visionary, depending on how you see it, than a certain immediate threat) and tried to bypass that step. Then, when they screwed up the aftermath of the war, they had never created the consensus and the will they would need to stick it out.

[meade]

It pains me to see you giving up hope at this admittedly low point.

Of course we're leaving. When were we not going to be leaving? The question is how and on who's terms will we leave. Bush has two years to correct his mistakes and to see to it that those terms are ours.

As in every military operation, mistakes have been made. But there have also been significant successes and there are more successes to come, worth fighting for, many of us continue to hope.

It's true that we will never "win" in Iraq, a difficult concept for many Americans to get their minds around. But what other option do we have than to assist a free democratic Iraq to fight to make certain that it is the jihadists who are the ones who do in fact lose. Otherwise, we will surely lose more than just Iraq.

[amba]

I don't disagree with you at all, meade. I just see ours becoming ever more the minority opinion. An overwhelming consensus is building, from various directions -- a "coalition of the unwilling," if you will -- that we should cut our (domestic political) losses and get out sooner rather than later. Peace with honor, defeat with dignity.

[Icepick]

Peace with honor, defeat with dignity.

LOL, it really IS another Vietnam! And we all know how well 'Peace with Honor' worked out in SE Asia. I wonder who will be playing the role of Pol Pot this time around....

[karen]

What i still don't get is the question of WMD in Iraq. Right now, Saddamn is on trial for war atrocities and many Kurds are testifying that they were attacked horrendously- w/mustard gas or w/other such devastating biological weapons. Well, aren't these WMD?

How can we say- 1stly) that we believe they(Iraq, Saddamn) have WMD and go to war against them... b) the intelligence was wrong, there were no WMD & ~Bush lied;people died~, only to- lastly) listen to broadcasts of this trial featuring the evidence of the lethal capabilities of WMD.

Duh???

[karen]

One more thing.

I listen to NPR because i like the extras- the tales of people around the world and what they are up to. When it comes to the News, i find them (well, of course I would)very biased agaist anything, anything to do w/President Bush and especially the war in Iraq. I smell an Agenda.

I don't care much for Fox, what little i've viewed at my folks, but maybe both are necessary to hear to garner balance?