Bush, Baker and Iraq

It's pretty obvious that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney know what the Baker commission is going to tell them and they don't like it one bit.
Bush Initiates Iraq Policy Review Separate From Baker Group's

President Bush formally launched a sweeping internal review of Iraq policy yesterday, pulling together studies underway by various government agencies, according to U.S. officials.

The initiative, begun after Bush met at the White House with his foreign policy team, parallels the effort by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to salvage U.S. policy in Iraq, develop an exit strategy and protect long-term U.S. interests in the region. The two reviews are not competitive, administration officials said, although the White House wants to complete the process before mid-December, about the time the Iraq Study Group's final report is expected.

Now Bush and Cheney have gotten us into a war we can't win but it will be a disaster to lose. Over at LewRockwell.com Chris Floyd explains that there are only bad options when it comes to Iraq.
No Exit

As Washington waits with bated bipartisan breath to unwrap the shiny Christmas present known as "the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group," it becomes more and more obvious that the newly empowered Democrats are walking into a trap.

But it's not an artful contrivance prepared for their demise by the infinitely devious Karl Rove – the "political genius" who, since his appearance on the national stage, has managed to lose two elections (2000 and 2004) and eke out very narrow, dubious victories in two others. (And it wasn't Rove who cheated Bush into office in 2000, so that doesn't count even as a technical KO for him. The post-election coup d'état was directed by Bush family fixer James Baker – now chairman of the, er, Iraq Study Group.)

No, the trap awaiting the Democrats has been laid by reality itself. As so often noted here before, there is no good solution to the blood-puking hell that George W. Bush has wrought in Iraq. There is no path out of this killing field that won't involve more slaughter, more suffering, more hate, more grief. No "bipartisan panel" – certainly not one led by the lifelong peddler of Bush Family snake oil, Jim Baker, and the Democratic whitewasher for all seasons, Lee Hamilton – is going to find some new, unlooked-for way to untangle this knotted gut. They can only sift through the same reality that we all can see. The options are extremely limited, and all of them have ugly consequences.

He gives us eight options all but one of which "will very likely lead to full-blown civil war". The one that doesn't just postpones it. Go read the entire commentary for details.

Now Bush has no interest in winning in Iraq, his only interest is to make sure the loss is pinned on someone else. We will leave Iraq and the results will be a catastrophe for the region and the world. There is no winning option. The administration knows this but wants the "cut and run" to happen after he leaves office. His problem is not only with Democrats who are in charge but with the Republicans who don't want Iraq to be an issue in 2008.