Those of us without rose colored glasses saw this a long time ago. Perhaps the recent spate of news out of Iraq is starting to make an impression on those who didn't see or ignored reality before.
Today's New York Times reports that the provincial capitol of Ramadi, a few kilometers down the road from Fallujah, is fast becoming another "no-go" area for American soldiers and exceptionally dangerous to anyone who works for the Americans. The proximity to Fallujah and the close coordination between insurgents in both cities means that any attempt to deal decisively with one must deal with the other.
The marines in Ramadi are so short-handed that they cannot usually put together four HMMWVs required to convoy safely through the center of town. Lists of "collaborators" are posted outside of the mosques and these people have been harassed and killed.
The situation in Ramadi and Fallujah and towns all over Iraq put the lie to BushCo.'s insistence that things in Iraq are progressing nicely and that "freedom is on the march." An uprising in Ramadi like the one in Fallujah would put the possibility of elections in January - already highly unlikely - beyond reach. Any vote taken without including these two cities would be highly suspect and not supported in the rest of Iraq.
This is what "staying the course" gets us in a war that never should have been.
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