Now that we know Bushs original assault on Iraq was less about preemption and more about the first part of a grandiose plan to wedge and spread Democracy into the Middle East, Id like to understand why the President continues to push this policy in light of the growing evidence that predicted roadblocks are already at hand. It is a policy whose underpinning is no longer dependent on the optimistic promise of a hallucinogenic vision but rather on the hope that somehow elections by folks steeped in centuries of sometimes overt, sometimes suppressed sectarian warring will miraculously embrace democracy and form a republicof any kind? And based on some of the other elections held in the region, well, even hope seems under fire, leaving us no choice but to pull a fifth ace from the deck. In other words, there is no foundation remaining for a sound policy, just wishful thinking.

But, as we know and all come to love about our irascible president, Dubya is one stubborn guy, or as he likes to think of himself, a guy who sticks to his convictions, a guy who doesnt debate with himself once a decision is made. Thats nice when your convictions and decisions might be over the choices on a dinner menu, but we are talking war here where bad and good people kill bad and good people and where plenty of dollars are borrowed to fund the insanity.

Honestly, if King George declares freedom is on the march one more time, I just might jam a white hot poker into my eye. At least come up with a new way of saying it; a little twist perhaps. How about something catchy like Freedom is on a camel and due in Tikrit by Tuesday? Unless his goal is to eventually join the ranks of talk radio hosts Hannity, Limbaugh and Savage, his repeated rhetoric leaves me wondering, where is Karl Rove when I really need him. He needs to tape a few quarters to the top of Dubyas head licketty split so hell stop skipping on the scratches etched into the grooves of his post 9/11 logic (dating myself a little; if you are under thirty, ask a respected elder what the vague reference means).

What has me most concerned is this cataract filled vision that started it all. Its the Vietnam domino theory in reverse. Contrary to what we were told in support of continued fighting in Southeast Asia, we learned that communism failed to spread at all, let alone all the way to Australia. Now we are led to believe democracy will domino through the Middle East where the cultures are tribal and regimes theocratic. Why should we take this boneheaded idea seriously; because we are better than everyone else; because we are good and they are evil? Is this what post 9/11 has come to excuse; democracy building? And if it has, why couldnt we have completed the experiment in Afghanistan first, where we are learning again and again that sectarian problems are menacing and do not buckle, even when confronted by a wide international front.

Well, the only good news from Bushs latest get-out-the-message speech is that he finally has provided an answer to how much longer troops will stay in Iraq. We get it now. The first opportunity to pull them out will coincide with the end of his second terma little less than three years folks. In the meantime, we are left to ride this debacle out. With a little luck, possibly the Senate and House will change its tune after the 2006 elections and cast a pay-as-you-go eye to continued tax cuts in light of Bushs freedom march, an extravagant policy that pretty much has high stepped in place unfunded by American taxpayers. Oh wait, thats not completely true. It will be funded by our children and grandchildren.

Wont they be surprised? Maybe we shouldnt tell them until they are ready to put money into their private retirement accounts.