George Versus Reality

Guess who's winning? Reuters (07.21.06), via C&L:

"Iraqi leaders have all but given up on holding the country together and, just two months after forming a national unity government, talk in private of 'black days' of civil war ahead. Signalling a dramatic abandonment of the U.S.-backed project for Iraq, there is even talk among them of pre-empting the worst bloodshed by agreeing to an east-west division of Baghdad into Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim zones, senior officials told Reuters." Gloom descends on Iraqi leaders as civil war looms

"'Iraq as a political project is finished,' one senior government official said -- anonymously because the coalition under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki remains committed in public to the U.S.-sponsored constitution that preserves Iraq's unity." Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the "children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads." Washington Post (07.21.06):

"In the administration's view, the new conflict [in Lebanon] is not just a crisis to be managed. It is also an opportunity to seriously degrade a big threat in the region, just as Bush believes he is doing in Iraq. 'He thinks he is playing in a longer-term game than the tacticians,' said the former official, who spoke anonymously so he could discuss his views candidly. " In Mideast Strife, Bush Sees a Step To Peace