Iraq, the iceberg is right ahead.

Over at the Left Coaster pessimist has a good post; The Fat Lady's Warming Up. He quotes a Newsweek article by former military-policy planner Mike Turner. I'm not going to cut and paste what has already been cut and pasted so go check it out at the Fat Lady link above. It is an excellent analysis of the how the Iraq war is lost or at least dubya's "stay the course" is not an option.
Because of excessive troll spaming comments are not enabled at Left Coaster so I will use this forum to comment. Mike Turner gives 2 scenarios for Iraq:

• Four years from now, America will have 5,000 dead servicemen and women and an untold number of dead Iraqis at a cost of about $1 trillion, yet still be no closer to success than we are right now, or


• The U.S. will be gone, and we will witness the birth of a violent breeding ground for Shiite terrorists posing a far greater threat to Americans than a contained Saddam.

The first will not happen. Americans have not completely forgotten Vietnam and won't let it. Regardless of who wins in November scenario #2 is a done deal. The scary thing is just like Vietnam both the Bush administration and Kerry and his advisors know it. Shades of 1968 and certainly 1972. Like Vietnam, Americans dying because of politics.