Here's an idea: take your paycheck this Friday and flush it down the toilet. Then ask for an advance on your salary and flush that down the toilet. Hell, take everything you own and shove it into the toilet. If things don't fit, then make a bonfire in the front yard. Just save yourself a few pairs of underwear.

That's what's happening right now in pursuit of the Iraq war.

Iraq at Risk of Further Strife, Intelligence Report Warns

Washington Post
Friday, February 2, 2007

A long-awaited National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, presented to President Bush by the intelligence community yesterday, outlines an increasingly perilous situation in which the United States has little control and there is a strong possibility of further deterioration, according to sources familiar with the document.

In a discussion of whether Iraq has reached a state of civil war, the 90-page classified NIE comes to no conclusion and holds out prospects of improvement. But it couches glimmers of optimism in deep uncertainty about whether the Iraqi leaders will be able to transcend sectarian interests and fight against extremists, establish effective national institutions and end rampant corruption.

The document emphasizes that although al-Qaeda activities in Iraq remain a problem, they have been surpassed by Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence as the primary source of conflict and the most immediate threat to U.S. goals. Iran, which the administration has charged with supplying and directing Iraqi extremists, is mentioned but is not a focus.

So what do we do when Iraq slides further into the hell-hole? Read on:

The Bush administration is seeking a record military budget of $622 billion for the 2008 fiscal year, Pentagon officials have said. The sum includes more than $140 billion for war-related costs.

The administration is also seeking $93 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, to pay for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the officials said.

So will all this money help in Iraq? Probably not. The National Intelligence Estimate, a government operation which advises the President on the war, says the situation is dire: "Iraqi society’s growing polarization, the persistent weakness of the security forces and the state in general, and all sides’ ready recourse to violence are collectively driving an increase in communal and insurgent violence and political extremism. Unless efforts to reverse these conditions show measurable progress during the term of this Estimate, the coming 12 to 18 months, we assess that the overall security situation will continue to deteriorate at rates comparable to the latter part of 2006."

On the other hand, the National Intelligence Estimate says that "'Rapid withdrawal' of U.S. forces would likely lead to a 'significant increase in the scale and scope of sectarian conflict in Iraq.'"

So we are damned if we stay in Iraq and we are damned if we leave. When things start to rot, blame the man with the money. That's President Bush, who ain't apologizing for nuthin'. But we have the next best thing: the Republican Majority Leader who voted for war in October 2002 says he did not have the guts to say No and defy the President. Here's excerpts from an interview with this hard-line Republican:

Q. Your views on the Iraq war?

A. I'm not sure that it was the right thing to do. You might say removing Saddam from power was a right thing to do. Maybe it was, but was that necessarily then our responsibility to do that? And was it our responsibility to do that by invading a country that had no way declared any war on us?

Q. You voted for the resolution to go to war.

A. I did, and I'm not happy about it. The resolution was a resolution that authorized the president to take that action if he deemed it necessary. Had I been more true to myself and the principles I believed in at the time, I would have openly opposed the whole adventure vocally and aggressively. I had a tough time reconciling doing that against the duties of majority leader in the House. I would have served myself and my party and my country better, though, had I done so.

With a name like Dick Armey, you know that his apology means something.