Half an F.U.

Bush's (non-agressive Democrat halved) bi-partisan "Eye-Rack" Study Group (you know the kind of thing you should have BEFORE you invade a country) has stated that country has 3 months (half a Frieman!) to get their shit together.

Let's see, there's September, then there's October and then Novemnber.

Ah, I see, the final unit of measurement comes AFTER the elections.

Oh, for once, let me say gentlemen, "good plan"!

I have to agree with Juan Cole's summary on this, we are planting the seeds of an appropriate "fall guy" for our failure -- and SURPRISE! it won't be Bush, or even an American (at least non-Democratic ones):

...how come Iraq only has one armored division, and how come its army only has 78 old Hungarian tanks? How can you control Iraq with lightly armed and poorly trained infantry? Saddam had 8,000 tanks at his height.

And, nobody can get elected prime minister in today's Iraq except by getting the support of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Sadr Movement, both of which have militias. So then how can the PM crack down on the paramilitaries that brought him to power, with an army that doesn't seem willing or able to take them on?...

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group also said that the Iraqi government must act quickly and decisively to prevent the crisis from deteriorating.

So, I fear I think that the American officials in Baghdad are trying to make Maliki a scapegoat and take the spotlight off their own failures. They are the ones with the tanks and helicopter gunships and trained troops, and they haven't been able to restore security. How can Maliki?

Let me help the right-wing bloviators get their talking-point shit together for Christmas 2006:

None of this would have happened, of course, if the Clenis hadn't invaded Iraq and then put a guy like Maliki in charge!