Austin Bay argues that Iraq is now doing what the U.S. planned for all along: attracting every low-life terrorist in the region:
The Bush Administration ‘suggested’ this case but shied away from making it the center of its public diplomacy. In retrospect that was a political mistake. ‘The rats’ are attracted to Iraq, and the US and coalition are building an Iraqi Army that will fight them. The US strategy has brought the War on Terror home to the Middle East- the politically dysfunctional Middle East where Assads, Zarqawi, Saddam, and radical Wahhabs mix.
I wish I were so confident of the Iraqi army. I just taped Fareed Zakaria’s PBS show on foreign affairs. Chatting with him afterward, he says that from his own exprience over there, everything is explicable through one essential prism: we never sent enough troops. I sure hope we haven’t set up a royal fight without the necessary means to win it.
VIRUS UPDATE: Five days of the new meds. Nothing like the side-effects of the old ones. But still there’s a wave of fatigue and mild nausea that overcomes me most afternoons. And no, I haven’t been reading Eric Alterman.
The Dish 