BETRAYAL

Betrayal's anguished hue and cry dots the disappointed political (even, astrological) blather-sphere-- Shorn of their delusions the demies would 'make the difference' or would 'make the tough choices' or would 'go the extra mile', opponents of the ongoing fiasco in Iraq find themselves a majority without a party-- Will they, like slapped and abused women forgiving and forgetting forever, find faux feelie-good reasons to rejoin the fray coming in '08, resurrecting unwarranted faith and support for those undeserving feckless fundraisers masquerading as statesmen and leaders??--

More than likely, the answer would normally be 'yes', barring extremely extenuating circumstances, but the current state of affairs in DC and the growlingly recalcitrant world's response to imperial hubris may not allow such defeatist acquiescence-- The demies simply yearn to arrive at the '08 elections baggage-less, without being offended by or blamed for anything negative in any connotation-- There's a baseball game in motion somewhere on the playing fields of life and the confidence-lacking practitioners of avoidance-therapy, the demies, don't want to leave the dugout-- Life was so much less-stressful in the derelict minority-- No virtual responsibility, no accountability, no legislative duty, with attendance way less than mandatory, only the lazy indulgence of senatorial K-street perks-- Going along to get along-- Summertime............... and the livin' was easy.......--


Gershwin may give way to Faulkner's Long Hot Summer -- One unforeseen problem, though, of the many-many these wilting demies choose not to face full-on, is the canard that the opponents of the bloody multi-faceted sectarian slaughter ensuing anew daily in what was once called Iraq are easily collated into a captured but raggedy subgroup they disdainfully dismiss, usually with the pejorative "rabid' attached, as the 'anti-war left'-- Weenie demies consider this group hostage to the larger party largely because no other group will give them hospitable succor, though, to be more PC, perhaps, nurture, would have been more apropos)-- Clearly the homeless political outcasts of the left do, indeed, have no where else to go and therefore, usually being long of principle and of finances concurrently short-......handed, warrant no indemnification from the damaging misnomering slurs that generally go with the bruising terrain of such chicken-hearted elitist politics--


Why did these crybabies ever cotton to the maladroit notion the professional careerist demies would ever deign to do the right thing even when the whole disparate world, except Israel, cried out for it??-- To calculatingly deflect, in so brazenly delusional and abjectly de-spiriting a manner, the position held by the majority, repeat,.... the majority!!.... of the American People (usually no small number who do actually vote!!) that position being the opposition to the Iraq War, as exclusively part and parcel of a notoriously cranky sub-specie, is a self-destructive expediency inviting the metaphorical guillotine into the entitlements of their political ambience-- Not exactly the least stupid outcome they could muster from their craven dust-up with, no stranger to political decrepitude himself and considerably less than chiefly, The Decider ....

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MEMORIAL DAY

The current state of the White House and the administration reflects a dysfunctional atmosphere replete with hesitant and clearly uncertain policy formulations being debated and leaked in various manners that border on unraveling-- The increasing mayhem in Iraq may no longer be denied and once cautiously confident statements extolling progress via The Surge are no longer bandied about DC except perhaps in the oddest of out-of-touch think-tanks and campaigns run by faux leaders fancying themselves presidential candidates-- The bold and critical objectives aimed at securing both Baghdad itself and Anbar Province are unfortunately being met by an indisputable lack of success-- Reconciliation between sectarian factions, as prescribed by in-effectual, blustery US statesmen and petulant pundits, appears to be fait non-accompli--

Into this violent wasteland strewn with not just a few discarded milestones hollowed of their promised 'cakewalk' to easy victory emerges the under-estimated Moqtada Sadr proposing after Friday prayers to forge a united Iraq pledging co-operation with Sunnis opposing the US occupation-- What may be empty prattle by the grudgingly skillful populist/nationalist/sermonist effectively sticks a political thumb into the administration's less than keen eye-- Clearly unable to predict Sadr's movements and much less his intentions which the White House attributes to radical instability, the Bush men,sooner or later, are going to have to realize the adept Sadr has won way more Hearts & Minds as a fiery crazy-fox than the ever behind-schedule General Petraeus has purchasing photo-op pastries at some secular bakery--



Petraeus' strategy would have echo-ed his intelligent skill and anti-insurgent savvy had the application of which occurred before Mr. Bremer's artless tenure as the combat-booted, cool-breeze, Coalition-Viceroy was more than allowed to screw-the-pooch from the Green Zone-- While Rumsfeld's narrow field of vision was completely occupied by micro-management and the stubborn two-year refusal to admit an insurgency even existed, 3 million Iraqi souls incarnated as refugees, two million of which fled the country-- Three million pilgrims whose Hearts and Minds poor frustrated Petraeus had fat chance of ever pimping over to the Project for a New American Century-- Always a day late and a dollar shy but still chucking good money after bad to the tune of $10 billion per month--



Mr. Bush, as reported on Time.com earlier in the week, was suddenly considering a dramatic 50% troop cut sometime in early '08, but forceful denial from the White House spin-crew nipped that unwelcome tidbit in the bud only to later re-re-adjust their message to refer to a possible operational substitution from combat personnel to troop-trainers for the woeful Iraqi Army which, also earlier in the week, confessed to actually planning, in conjunction with Iraqi political leaders, for worst case scenarios involving sudden immediate withdrawal of American forces from Iraq proper-- Is it safe to say mis-communication rules the day both in and out of the White House??-- Is the Iraqi Army privy to any of the plans??-- Rumors run amok mirroring the metastisizing vacuum--



Pushing PM Maliki for "tangible results quickly" on the Oil Bill may be the last card to play in Iraq and conceivably could end up as the last failed milestone but Bush still has a card or two up his sleeve-- Reports of a huge rift between good-cop Bush and bad-cop Cheney playing out over Iran contributed to the fevered angst enveloping the region as US Naval Forces exercised formidable battle formations in an awesome array off the coast of Iran, un-nerving most neighbors, particularly Afghanastan-- Hot conflict could be only a matter of days away should Cheney's National Security crew dominate or subvert the Pentagon/Intelligence crew advocating for Sec State Rice's team-- Bush the weakened Decider, fresh from bludgeoning the even weaker demie congress mid-week, sits inside the Crucible between these testy opponents--

Cheney, of course, has a card up his sleeve, the ever-present purchasing power of AIPAC and the VP's ever amiable proclivity to collude in criminal adventures with Ehud Olmert and the Israeli ADF-- Last week was Cheney's turn, on station in the Gulf, to strut and fret his hour upon the air-craft carrier certainly talking tough about not only the last but also the only mission remotely available for his wanting sense of accomplishment-- Add, also, to this roiled mix the Three-Star War Czar who is mandated to co-ordinate the disparate elements of this vivid jumbo-cluster coming to a live theater near you this Memorial Day--

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BACKING DOWN

Once more, the demies have have thrown in the towel on the Iraq funding bill-- Once more, the most weakened major political leader in the entire world subtracting Anthony (Poodle)Blair busy publicizing himself rock-star style with a farewell resignation-tour, and, of course, the ever irresponsible Ehud (3%) Olmert and possibly, according to recent open-source intel out of Pakistan, the popularity-challenged Pervez Musharrif, Mr. Bush has manage to cower the less than laughing-stock demies into abject surrender with a veto threat leaving no datelines for troop pullout in the immediate offing-- That a man incapable of whipping the Euro-liberals at the World Bank decimates these demies with such remarkable ease is strange testimony to the power vacuum enveloping the entire DC echelon--


Forty-seven Republicans, one independent and 19 Democrats voted with Jimmy Carter's favorite Prez, none of whom on the nominal demie's side were presidential candidates but chairman of the Armed Services Committee, the Israeli Senator from Michigan, Carl Levin kept the faith with his AIPAC handlers siding with the Lieberman ilk-- Harry Reid had the unmitigated temerity to denounce the Republican plan as weak and timid-- Non-binding demie cowardice hard at work-- No wonder positive congessional poll numbers of late have sunk like a stone--

Meanwhile fifteen more American troops had their young lives snuffed out over the weekend last-- The Sunni insurgents continue their Surge options more effectively than most American officials willingly admit-- Hundreds of bystanders have recently been slaughtered by insurgent car bomb attacks plied with increasingly sophisticated technique and for all intents and purposes a relative impunity that openly mocks the Bush security plans-- Iraqi security forces manning evermore checkpoints reportedly stop certain vehicles and beg for more bullets--


Market bombs which killed 140 people have an illustrious tendency to force reports detailing incessant mortar attacks against important targets such as The Green Zone or the Airport off the home pages of most news sites-- Few politicians see any hope of building a name for themselves invoking lines of cautious optimism once so prevalent at the Surge's initial foray into the slums of Baghdad-- How long can Moqtada Sadr order his militia to stand down while under-manned under-armored American forces fail to prevent ongoing Sunni butchery??-- The facts on the ground speak way beyond the charade of political dogma so rife in DC and they do not currently bode success much less chosen Victory-- How many months into the Surge so far??-- A Colonel struggles with the double-bladed logistics of faux optimism and reminds everyone the Surge is not yet 'fully-staffed'-- Well,........ Why not??--


The air of futility, the demies' maladroit skill engenders to display in broad daylight, reverberates across the dispirited country mirrored by the cloud of exhaustion and acute despair permeating the disintegration of Iraq-- Not just a country at singular civil war but one enduring multiple civil wars locally, regionally, and in some cases, inter-tribally-- The Iraqi government, strangely enough being supported by both Iran and the US, is increasingly irrelevant across much of its own terrain-- No government earns legitimacy by failing to deliver security and services-- The Iraqi government lacks real authority and it is incapable of serving its own people-- The canard that chaos will overrun the country should we pull-out belies the intense pervasive chaos and lack of structural, political and social cohesion manifesting already-- Accepting extant reality doesn't appear to be an option--

RESIGNATION

The architect of the undermanned invasion of Iraq has fallen from his prestigious position at The World Bank-- The unsavory groveling he employed to extend his current directorial rein embarrassed his patrons in the White House and distracted their daily focus from the mega-exigencies wrought by the continued failure to tamp down the incessant violence countrywide in Iraq-- Wolfie's graceless exit ended a troubled tenure in such a wretched manner no one would be sorry to see the sullied little worm go-- One more sullen demoralizing episode illuminating the ongoing loss of American influence in the big global picture--

The White House crew under bigboys Rove and Cheney smelled a paranoid conspiracy of liberal bankers (how more oxymoronic can they be?) full bore intent on punishing The White House via Wolfie for the grandiosely misbegotten Neocon strategy of remaking the Middle East through coercive gunfire-- To effect such a scenario the financially important world institution would opt to subvert its own inner daily workings in order to provide the arrogant Wolfewitzie enough rope to hoist himself to the rafters-- Once this was so deftly achieved the world mission of the Bank would be benched in some strange limbo while the Bank's board would devote its primary energy to management of the attendant media circus Wolfie would attempt to orchestrate to his advantageous survival-- All that only if your viewpoint mirrors Dick and Karl-- Wolfie's final gambit a pathetic schoolboy delusion to save unrepentant face-- His integrity tattered and diminished beyond repair he pleads with The Board whimpering this sleazy calculus: If you just tell them I did nothing wrong I will leave--

The White House now closes ranks once again as the once powerfully inept inner circle of Shock and Awe diminishes even further-- Two architects of the efficacy of aggressive eternal war, two major players in this criminal enterprise, have thrown in the towel this week-- Tony Blair's farewell fantasy tour extended its nostalgic air of egregious unreality into the Bush White House to say Tally-ho while Wolfewitzie chose humiliation over grace for his demeaning manner of exit-- The mood in the administration can't be aglow as odds-makers now consider Attorney General Gonzalez, whose top three or four deputies have also resigned, fair game for the next to depart-- The odds on Wolfie now portend ...... you guessed it......mega book deal as payoff where one would fruitlessly hope he would address his famous Salon magazine quote stipulating WMD's to have been a canard in the first place, the purpose to which, forcibly allowing US troops access to Iraq and its oil fields-- One suspects a facile vain refusal to face up to his own complicity since neither direct nor implied mea culpas find any solace of honor or,indeed, even punishment in the coin of today's realm-- Ask George Tenet!!!!--

At the twilight of the Conservative Epoch a litany of casualties sours the once powerfully prophetic and political battlefield-- When a championship caliber team sees through the dream of victory and realizes its fortunes will not be favored in the Big Game's outcome, out comes the finger pointing and the blame sayers and retreating die hards plot sick revenge-- Across the blathersphere the cacophony of anger, denial, and retribution only spells out the impending collapse of the order-- The Pharasaic Fallen reads like a list of Who's Who? from the halcyon days of Reagan's Morning in America-- Bennett, the gambler; Limbaugh, the designer-drug addict; Powell, the liar; DeLay, the hammer; Abramoff the bribester; Cunningham, the bribed; Pastor Ted and Jimmy Swaggert, Congressmen Foley and Jefferson, Coach Hastert, Armey, Gingrich, Lieberman, Kissinger, Perle, Tenet, Wolfewitz, Rumsfeld, Blair, Bremer, Franks, Gonzalez, Clinton, Abrams, Libby, Adelman, Kerry, Olmert, Peretz, Halutz, Rice, Lott, Gore, Falwell........... The blade next waits on Bush and Cheney........

Nancy Pelosi is only now calling for the administration to be held accountable for conduct surrounding the Iraq debacle-- Since this cannot possibly be true might it, at least, be factual??-- Yahoo quoted her as saying "Nothing is off the table."-- Does this mean......?-- No, of course, not!!!-- The demies still lack cajones enough to pass the minimum wage bill-- But clearly visible to most any cognizant observer is the utter implosive atmosphere surrounding this administration and the entire infected echelon-- The air of resignation hangs oppressively over DC and the ineffectual demies cannot muster enough force to fill the vacuum much less prevent themselves from being sucked down into the swirling morass themselves-- Even Bush weakened returns their flimsy serve in a match neither can save themselves from losing-- As much as they petulantly dislike to be reminded of the harsh discomforting fact, they, too, voted....... For the War!!--

No one seems sorry to see him go

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THE PROGRESS OF SURGE

Iraq, April 2007, the increasing casualty count, absent the multiplication of deflective canards designed to deliver tactical delay for the many politicians fearful of facing the magnified facts of this foreign policy failure, simply does not bode very well for any indications of progress-- The highest monthly totals of the year, 104 American troops etched their obits into the eternal dust and scorching heat of the disintegrating country they were deployed, under false pretexts, to 'Liberate'-- Back in DC the finger-to-the-wind poseurs, we once called statesmen, don camouflage to divert the demand for immediate decisive action and the political repercussions such action tends to inflict, hiding behind Washington's latest amorphous verbal subterfuge-- The pathetic search for a less than myopic but calculatingly definable vector to the operative word of the day.... 'Progress'--



Ostensibly, once the behemoth-like nature of this semantic task is rendered neuter enough through focus-group-think, and not withstanding the internecine intra-mural bloodsport of the Re-election First-ers, the perennial candidate class, now busy un-busying their legislative schedules with the preeminent domain of mega-fund-raising and the sharpening of campaign brochure bona fides, will rise to the exigencies of the tremulous occasion and faithfully execute the incumbent responsibility they once so clamorously sought without postponement of the inevitable, but, again, almost no one in the blather-sphere is confidently raising any such hopeful expectations-- Deadlining, more than likely though speciously unspecified, the end of September as a sufficient enough time frame to deduce the practical parameters of this noun/verb, its descriptive veracity applicable to The Surge in Iraq and how it then plays in both Baghdad and Peoria, this August Body and its once esteemed reputation will supposedly, point blank, be on the line leading to responsible moral action-- Recent pollsters, though, have delineated a sharp downward plunge American confidence in their government has lately taken, lamentably spelling out an almost equal lack of faith with regard to both Congress and the President...... a benchmark few media members want to mention and certainly one no phony Surge appears capable of eclipsing--



The relentless insurgency in Iraq (record high car-bombs in March and April) still controls tempo and terrain of its own choosing and continues to demonstrate tactical adaptability that wins grudging but surprising respect from American Troops and their Commanders on the ground-- The one benchmark assiduously proposed by Bush and American pols as a barometer to the efficacy of the elected Iraqi government now looks dead in the water-- The most relatively contented or seemingly pacific element of all the disparate raging Iraqi groups, The Kurds, have vowed to kill the Oil Bill languishing in parliament-- DC-time Cheney and Baghdad-time Al Malicki seem paradigmatically incapable of resolving any of their important differences--If the slogan 'Iraqi Oil for Iraqi People' catches fire among the disparate groups and general population, look out!!!!--- Already $10 billion(US) a month down the drain, we know whose time is getting shorter--



Sooner or later the worthless demies have to see that two of their probabilities have similar potential for the effective smearing of of their own demie self-esteem-- Living in abject fear they will be forced by meanie smear-man Rove to take the false blame for "losing" Iraq either now or in 2008 after the White House dribbles out the time clock and shuffles off into the Churchillian sunset, the demies appear as paralytic as the imploding White House-- If the demies even with the attendant difficulties manage to summon enough courage(and this is no doubt a major major 'if') to end the war presently, all of next year remains available to change the terms of debate for 2008 elections-- Wait until 'o8 and the repo-men can slander the demies with losing a war bequeathed to them a fraction shy of the victory the Repo architects of this tragedy sought-- So, demies, sometimes practical political advantages are bound into courageous stands but the stands, the outcomes of which are forever beyond our control, must be taken-- Damned if you do or damned if you don't, why not opt for the right thing????-- Now!!!!!--

METASTISIS

Grim headlines greet the business world today as the numbers indicate ordinary Americans, already up to the eyeballs in the black-water of gnarly old debt, have begun to rein in some of that profligate consumption-- Retailers certainly felt the penny pincher's wrath in April blaming the slowdown on rotten weather and the Easter calendar (give us a break!!) with only a few proud brave merchants unafraid of facing the obvious link between skyrocketing gasoline prices and the dissipation of disposable income-- Credit cards were still not enough to add sparkle to wallets almost totally devoid of cash as gasping retail wizards endured a ghastly record decline--


Bugaboo Wal-Mart's decline (3.5%) down-roared at a clip three times analysts' prognostications (1.1%), not, to say the least, a small-time discrepancy, and was met with all manner of arcane excuses including weak merchandising techniques as if window-dressing and rack placement failed to trick enough consumptives into the store-- J C Penney's same store sales sailed into negative territory (2.7%) more than tripling analyst expectations(0.8%)-- Gap gave the old heave-ho to its Ceo to stanch its acute hemorrhaging but found its trite blame-the-quarterback strategy unremittingly ineffective with southward sales torching bottom lines down 16%-- Abercrombie & Fitch's sales pitched their penny into the gathering gloom posting 15% declines over projected estimates of a hefty, in its own mistaken right, 7.4% -- Amazingly Wall Street's blind-leading-the-blind analysts failed to proximate even remote ballpark figures finishing dead-on the Mendoza line, correct on only two of every ten calls-- No wonder people are throwing their diminishing money at the Market, especially given data-glows too good to be true-- Facts are such trifling obstacles to the Dream and besides Goldilocks said the porridge would be OK!! but admitted a less than sanguine short-term caveat concerning pet food from China--


Well, stocks met this morning's less-than-stellar news with a considerably leaden slump-- The grandiose canard of recent record highs not so mysteriously driven by corporate stock buy-back programs in the Market must be disconnected from the real economy, where-ever that may be, as the import price trend up-surged, trade deficit gaps sharply and broadly expanded, and both gasoline and oil prices jumped due to worries over insufficient fuel inventories at the outset of the summer driving season-- Housing troubles continued to the drumbeat of sub-prime metastasis, spreading more foreclosures and less sales across the monopoly board--Analysts and Housing Ceo's were confident the hissing collapse of the housing bubble had bottomed last November-- Now the rich burbs of New York are feeling the relative squeeze-- Do not cross Go!-- Do not collect $200!!!--


At the all-time record Market top in 2000 a stock transaction that put $100 dollars in your pocketbook also put around 75 gallons of gasoline in the tank of your Firebird while a stock transaction at today's all time record high that puts $100 in your pocket only dribbles 38.5 gallons into the tank of your Yukon Deniali-- Somewhere the bang for the buck has gone MIA with the current chimerical run-up rally on Wall Street; Bubbleville, USA-- Feeble job creation numbers last month betray the happy-face economists and their professional optimissimo-- Running on empty..... Running scared!!!--

The long awaited oil bill idling away in the Iraqi Parliament seems to have less and less support as precious time ticks away on the Surge-- For several years Kurdish claims to sovereignty over the oil fields in the north have gone unchallenged largely because the undermanned forces of occupation had their hands busy in more violent sectors-- Suddenly un-enamored by reports American oil companies stand to reap most of the benefits of the oil bill, Kurdish tribal chieftains have opted for defiant stands-- Saudi King Abdullah has not rescinded his remarks tar-and-feathering the American occupation as 'illegal'-- Oil prices will not descend anytime soon--

On the political front the unabashed moral charade of the Organ Grinder's monkey, it was announced today, is coming to its exhausted and deflated end-- Prime Minister Tony Blair accepted his unapologetic fall from faux rectitude offering a tardy resignation to his many grateful subjects-- Unrepentant finality will not occur for a few months as the banty rooster of Downing Street decides to go out on a self aggrandizing note....oblivious to the world's dis-illusionment with his strident efforts to enable aggressive eternal war everywhere-- Unbelievably detached, quintessentially Hollywood-esque, nothing shy of a farewell world tour can suffice as a staged exit-- Dancing to the distant trumpet of a soured imperialism doomed by new world chaos, the vanity of victory will never envelope his efforts nor will it rescue his brokeback buddy--

Mr. Bush on the home-front fends off his own party's blunt-spoken analysis that the Iraq War is having a seriously deleterious effect on the Grand Old Party, not to mention those in the heat and dust of the Iraqi inferno itself-- Playing for time is now the most important game in DC and it does, well, help pass the time as ennui and downfall engulf the entire cast of characters-- Generals Petraeus and Odierno appear to be on different pages each seemingly extending surge deadlines off the cuff while Def-Sec Gates senses an urgency about Iraq that pressures the time-lines bobbing and weaving with every shift in the political winds-- The Decider is not The Coordinator and thus the War Czar job goes unfilled and hence unperformed-- Bush political fortunes risk a numbing paralysis devoted to incessant rear guard battles with the struggling hedging demies enmired by weak leadership in positions of authority and the snipers inside the politically endangered elements of his own party-- Plagued by a host of gnats while the economy, unrecognized and almost an afterthought, sinks--

WINOGRAD

Israelis of all political stripes, some vehemently, some disgustedly, continue to demand the resignation of their Prime Minister who was mercilessly pummeled by a scathing denouncement in the long awaited report from the special Winograd Commission juried to examine the dismal performance of Ehud Olmert, his government and his military staff in the disastrous Israeli War last summer on Lebanon-- Shorn of all possible denial, the commission nailed ignominious defeat in no uncertain terms to Ehud's quickly closing door--

Bearing the unassailable earmarks of dead man walking, Olmert stands disconnected like a disheveled scarecrow in winter begging for a second chance to rewrite his embarrassing ineptitude and incompetence as a military leader-- Lost wars never go away and they never grant the defeated those sought after second chances-- The long road of Defeat eats all participants and it runs forever-- Olmert's succor currently roused from sycophantic loyalists who fall when his regime falls will fade as more calls for resignation pierce his oblivious denial-- The longer he desperately hangs on, off-key and out of tune, the longer Israel suffers--


Israel clearly lost on strategic, operational and tactical grounds and the commission, didn't flinch in spelling out the damage done and it's potential repercussions-- It did, however, refuse consideration of the moral aspects of Olmert's improvisational martial gambit in the first place that ultimately wrought condemnation from the entire region and most of the world-- Millions of cluster bomblets and their maiming potential left scattered across farmlands and playgrounds and demolished neighborhoods won neither moral kudos or simple tokens of friendship from anyone anywhere-- This, after which the cease fire agreement was, for all intents and purposes, acknowledged as fait accompli by all parties--

The Israeli psyche has been fractured by the loss of their once invincible hubris and deteriorating economy(frothy run-up in stock prices a mirage of exception) and a critical lack of true leadership(as opposed to posturing professional dandies and opportunists which the general population appears now to loathe) currently prevents her from coming to grips with the depressingly dangerous predicament-- While 150,000 Israelis fill Rabine Square protesting Ehud (of 3% poll support)Olmert's decision to resist resignation, the chaotic disconsolate condition of the country precludes any overt and legal action to remove the man too incapable of discerning his misguided train not only left the station long ago but also departed on rails heading in the wrong direction--

The country might just be too chagrined to care enough to lop off the political head this sorry excuse for a real leader-- Not unlike its last remaining ally, America, the whole political echelon is suspect-- Leaders who knew better, or should have known better, failed to summon courage enough to act-- Israel's existential threat ain't coming from straw man Ahmadinejad or Iran, it is roiling up from the shame within and the outward contortions that rabid denial of such exhibits-- There may appear to be temporary respite from the storm in simply wishing the whole sordid mess would just vanish on its own accord, but the ultimate problem of Olmert's incompetence and the open extant highly-visible corruption of a large swath of the current political class will continue to fester until the Israeli people's strength of will, until now painfully lacking, ends this regime-- Fat Chance in the current climate--

The weakest most abjectly damaged political leaders in the world today are those who lent their moral and political integrity(such that they bore) leveraging their soul as well to the faux glory embodied by the Project For A New American Century now hemorrhaging disillusionment and self-destruction in Iraq-- The project, concocted by a group calling themselves 'The Cabal' later monikered as Neocons', consisted of think-tank zealots, some bearing dual passports, who fervently calibrated Israeli interests to be absolutely synonymous with American interests in the Middle East and who first won praise for their project from Israeli hawk Mr. Netanyahu-- Cheney arrived on board without being cudgeled toting Scooter Boy and with magical help from charismatic Ariel Sharon quickly swiveled Mr.Bush into position-- Richard Perle ascended to Rumsfield's right-hand man whenever Paul Wolfewitz could not avail himself for duty-- Tough talking milquetoast Brit PM Tony Blair found martial seduction facilely to his liking as well as the newly found tone of belligerence charading through his imperially pompous but out-of-touch speech-making-- George Tenet the erstwhile enabler now sudden convert to the aggrandizing nature of self-pity whining for or to likes of Oprah-- The list could go on........ Powell, Rice, Rove, Libby, Lieberman, Feith(of faith-based intel),Bolton,............. No longer strutting but most definitely fretting their remaining hour upon the world stage and with history's unwelcome judgement still to come, these ghostlike figures shattered of credence, crippled of and by the power invested in careerism, world political influence, once strident, now nebulous at best, almost fanciful ........ Dead Men Walking........ All of them, now, like Ehud Olmert-- Losers in the tarnished limelight of history--


The degree of security Israel absolutely professes to need is simply unattainable-- And if the illusions possessed by this desire convince the many or even the few that such security has, currently or in the mythic past, been once attained it is simply incapable of being maintained-- Israel sees enemies everywhere and where those enemies are real they are all strengthened greatly by last summer's defeat as well as by upgraded guerilla tactics and military hardware-- Invincibility no longer feared and deterrence no longer beyond doubt, serious trouble now awaits this crusader state-- Hezbollah leader Nasrallah praised the Winograd Commission for looking defeat squarely in the eye and studying hard earned lessons for the future-- He will not take Israeli desires for revenge lightly--For Bush, Blair and the rest of the neocon boys, there is no future to rebuild-- The future is a football full of fear and failure and an horribly acute mess they created to be handed off to a successor they hope shoulders the blame they richly deserve-- A veritable wasteland devoid of Honor---

Lost time and opportunity is the bitter pill not found again, Ehud-- Just ask John Kerry and Al Gore about second chances-- Better yet, why not ask.......... Mr. Kissinger??--