Iraq Meltdown: James Fallows weighs in, Bush too

Iraq news for today: Screams ring out as triple blast rips through Iraq market leaving 50 dead and 90 injured.

James Fallows wrote the definitive pre-invasion articles on the difficulties post-invasion Iraq would present for the United States. For those Atlantic Monthly articles, he spoke to a lot of military experts who told him that the invasion would be easy, but getting out would be the hard part. He reported what the best military minds in the land had told him: that they saw the adventure creating a whole minefield of potential problems for the US down the road. The US is now well down that road.

James Fallows' personal musings on the few viable choices left for the US at this juncture are worth reading. He concludes:

So the choice is between a terrible decision and one that is even worse. The terrible decision is just to begin leaving, knowing that even more innocent civilians will be killed and that we’ll be dealing with agitation out of Iraq for years to come. The worse decision would be to wait another year, or two, or three and then take that terrible course.

But it looks like The Decider has already opted for the "even worse than terrible" solution. A recent Newsweek article investigated Bush's position on the question. It concludes:

As he reviews his Iraq policy, Bush’s face is an open book. He has no intention of leaving Iraq, or abandoning its prime minister.

Makes me curious to know what strategies George has up his sleeve for winning the war in Afghanistan? And then there's Iran...