You give a boy a war to play with and what does he do with it? He throws away the toy and plays with the box. He spills the new painting kit all over the shag carpet. He tracks mud in the house with his new boots. He shorts out the neighborhood by sticking a new switchblade into the electrical socket.

For three years, the Bush administration and its apologists have attacked war critics as unpatriotic and weak. This was a classic war strategy: attack the truth-tellers and frighten the electorate so that billions of dollars can be flushed down the toilet. But the real loser was Bush, a guy with no substantial experience in government, who thought war could be played like a video game: kill off the bad guys and we all come home to a magnificant parade.

The Iraq Study Group is not a radical bastion. For Christ's sake, Edwin Meese, the sleazy former Attorney General in the Reagan Administration is on the panel. So is James Baker, former honcho in the Reagan and Bush I administrations which fought illegal wars in Central America, a man who got his hands dirty in a major financial scandal in the 1980's. But it does not take a leftist to know that we are not winning the War in Iraq. And only the Pinball Wizard from the rock opera Tommy would be blind to the horrendous legacy Bush is handing future generations that will have to untangle the mess created by this war. According to the Washington Post,

After years of boldly proclaiming that we would stay the course in Iraq, Bush will have someone read the Iraq Study Group's report to him. He will not like what he hears.

A panel of prominent elder leaders yesterday offered a stinging assessment of virtually every aspect of the U.S. venture in Iraq and called for a reshaping of the American military presence and a new Middle East diplomatic initiative to prevent the country from sliding into anarchy.

. . .

As they presented their findings, members of the commission made clear their belief that the Bush administration's Iraq policy is failing.

The foreign press is equally impressed by the Establishment's rebuke. The London Independent: "A more devastating indictment of the strategy of a sitting American president could not be imagined. The cross-party Iraq Study Group's recommendations on future US policy in that blighted country were made public yesterday. Gone are the illusions of "progress" and "victory" peddled by George Bush - and, until recently, Tony Blair. Instead, it paints an unvarnished picture of the "dire" reality in Iraq. It breaks new ground not in the proposals it makes, but in the bluntness with which it speaks truth to power."

A summary of the report's recommendations are here. It otherwise contains a few nuggets which shed light on the propaganda war the administration has waged against the American people. Editor & Publisher reports that, according to the Iraq Study Group:

"There is significant underreporting of the violence in Iraq" by the U.S. military. "The standard for recording attacks acts as a filter to keep events out of reports and databases," the report continues.

Looking at one day, the report found undercounting of violent attacks by more than 1000 percent.

"A murder of an Iraqi is not necessarily counted as an attack," the report explained." If we cannot deter mine the source of a sectarian attack, that assault does not make it into the database. A roadside bomb or a rocket or mortar attack that doesn’t hurt U.S. personnel doesn’t count. For example, on one day in July 2006 there were 93 attacks or significant acts of violence [officially] reported. Yet a careful review of the reports for that single day brought to light 1,100 acts of violence.

"Good policy is difficult to make when information is systematically collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy with policy goals."

Truth is not the only casualty. "At least 2,919 service members have been killed since the war started in 2003, according to an AP count. At least 75 people were killed or found dead across Iraq on Wednesday, including 48 whose bullet-riddled bodies were found in different parts of the capital." Ten American soldiers died the other day.

As the American people further turn away from the Iraq War and the Crown Prince who dove head first into the swimming pool without checking for water, maybe the first line of business is getting Bush to a psychiatrist to explore his pathological refusal to face reality. If he's man enough to go.