A LIGHT IS FLICKERING. Twelve to eighteen months now, and they can stand up and we can stand down. Maybe. General Casey and Ambassador Khalilzad promised that within that timeframe, the Iraqi government will a) disarm the militias, b) quell the insurgency, and c) reach political compromise on the sectarian divisions that have torn the country apart. No word yet, of course, on whether it will also give every Iraqi a pony. The Bush administration has proven itself very good at meeting its deadlines in Iraq. The June 30, 2004 handover of "sovereignty" took place ahead of schedule; the January 2005 election went off as planned; so too did the October 15, 2005 constitutional referendum and the December 15, 2005 election of a permanent government. What got lost in the mix was the meaning of these dates -- that is, in order to meet every benchmark, and thereby demonstrate "success" in Iraq for a news cycle or two, the administration joyfully overlooked the fact that each of these developments occurred before a lasting political-sectarian compromise was reached, and so they each contributed to ripping Iraq apart instead of putting it back together. Now Iraq is beyond American assistance, which is why Donald Rumsfeld has been saying lately that it's all up to the Iraqis in response to every question he's asked. And yet, on schedule, after each benchmark simply denotes a new milestone in Iraq's deterioration, General Casey and Ambassador Khalilzad emerge to tell us that success is still achievable and that they see light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, they should probably just tell us that, so we know with a wink and a nod that they don't believe this crap themselves. Or will we have to wait until their memoirs to learn that?
--Spencer Ackerman
