Wow! Even Friedman says Iraq is lost

Even Tom Friedman, he of the "The next six months will be crucial" fame (Because he kept saying that so often, bloggers refer to six months as "A Friedman") finally admits that:

When our top commander in Iraq, Gen. John Abizaid, tells a Senate Committee, as he did yesterday, that “the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I’ve seen it,” it means that three years of efforts to democratize Iraq are not working. That means “staying the course” is pointless, and it’s time to start thinking about Plan B -- how we might disengage with the least damage possible . . .Whether for Bush reasons or Arab reasons, democracy is not emerging in Iraq, and we can’t throw more good lives after good lives. (emphasis added)

So what does America's glorious Commander-in-Chief do? Obviously, he goes to Crawford TX to clear brush! I mean, dude, the prez has to have his priorities, eh? I mean, whoever heard of actually working at a job, huh? With Iraq collapsing and with Israel bogged down in Lebanon (Billmon has claimed that the fighting there now resembles Iwo Jima.) well, y'know it's not like the US really needs a full-time president, now is it?

Abdul Khaleq Abdulla, a U.S.-educated political scientist at Emirates University in the United Arab Emirates, a U.S. ally in the Iraq war, said the news coverage of Lebanon is deepening Arab hatred of the United States.

'People hold America morally and politically responsible for this. They hate America at this point, and it will last,' he said. 'They see the destruction of Iraq and Palestine on a daily basis. And now they see destruction in Lebanon on a daily basis. The blame leads through Tel Aviv and straight to Washington.'

The Arab media emphasize that Israel's bombing of Lebanon is being carried out with U.S.-made F-16 and F-15 warplanes dropping U.S.-made guided bombs _ paid for with American tax dollars. This week, front pages splashed reports that Washington was rushing an emergency shipment of 'bunker buster' bombs to Israel's air force.

And where is Karen Hughes, our Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the U.S. Department of State? One would think that the fighting in Lebanon would be something she'd be involved in, considering that her job description reads that she is "...to promote America's values and confront ideological support for terrorism around the world." Or, as Fred Kaplan of Slate puts it: "The main task of this posting is to improve America's image in the Muslim world." For an Administration official to be in the position she's in and to be AWOL at a time like this is just amazing.